Why would Musk do this? It seems notable that one of Musk’s heroes is the current president of Argentina, Javier Milei, who has been credited with taking a “chainsaw” to the nation’s government. Milei, an avowed “free market,” “anti-woke” libertarian, took office in December of 2023, and has instituted what he calls an “austerity” budget, characterized by economic “shock treatment.” This strategy has involved making deep cuts to government spending on social welfare programs, devaluing the peso, and cutting thousands of government jobs, all in the hope of some vague libertarian glowup in the near to far future.

  • danc4498@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    Billionaires profit SO much from a tanked economy. Everybody else is fucked, but all the toys they want to buy go on sale. Namely competitors.

    • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      Sure is a weird coincidence how we’ve had recessions after the last 3 or 4 Republican presidents /s

      • danc4498@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        And Biden gets blamed for Trump’s economy while Trump is celebrated for Obama’s economy. Fuck is wrong with people.

        • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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          14 days ago

          I mean, that’s the natural result of Biden’s reluctance to blame Republicans for anything and all his efforts to work with them and praise them whenever they do anything remotely positive, and now Harris can’t stop bragging about all the endorsements she got from Republicans who helped set these cycles up in the past. It’s totally predictable that a lot of people are confused and just think “politicians” are to blame when we have Dems like this.

          • danc4498@lemmy.world
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            14 days ago

            Yeah, this is true. Biden crossed aisles. Obama used a super majority to fix healthcare in a bipartisan manner. And this resulted in Democrats getting smacked by republicans for over a decade. Even though it was a bipartisan effort!

        • Billiam@lemmy.world
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          14 days ago

          I used to have a boss who likes to credit Obama’s economy to Bush, saying that presidential economic policies take 4-8 years to be felt.

          Didn’t have much to say about why Bush I’s economy sucked though, for some reason.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          14 days ago

          Fuck is wrong with people.

          They’re all too busy believing the loudest person in a suit that they can find.

          Surely being loud in a suit means what you say is important, right? The louder the more important… and look at how long that tie is. Surely that’s the bestest person to listen to.

    • d00phy@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      This right here is the answer. Everyone can go home now.

      Seriously, it’s not the low taxes, though those are appreciated, it’s the prospect of more market share which equals more wealth and, most importantly, power. During the housing crisis we had banks that were deemed “too big to fail.” For the next one, a handful of super-wealthy assholes will receive the same designation.

  • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    Musk, who was talking about reducing the national debt

    so why is he supporting an ex president who blew the national debt up beyond anyone that came before?

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      14 days ago

      Oh he still wants to reduce the national debt. In specific, he wants to reduce the debt he has to several nations.

    • Red_October@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      Well there’s the problem, you seem to think that things like basic pattern recognition and an understanding of basic reality are involved in someone deciding they like Trump.

    • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      Trump overspends because he doesn’t know the value of money. Elon wants money and the government has the most of it. Starlink is a government funding machine that soaks up all the space budget. But NASA has been bearing the brunt of budget cuts each year since they retired the STS shuttle, so Elon wants that defense budget via the NRO. Trump founded the Space Corps and believes in the vague idea of “space is future” that Elon pumps out and will overspend trying to make that happen. Elon’s plan is to directly receive government money.

      Trump is so dumb as to not understand details, easily persuaded, and has unlimited money that Elon sees him as the best way to get space seed money.

      • leftzero@lemmynsfw.com
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        14 days ago

        Trump overspends because he doesn’t know the value of money.

        Trump “overspends” because he doesn’t understand the concept of actually paying a bill.

        He’s spent all his life refusing to pay a single bill, and somehow getting away with it.

        It doesn’t matter if the money is his or the government’s (until he steals it). He won’t pay. If he has anything remotely resembling principles, not paying is his main one.

        He’s as capable of intentionally paying a bill as he is of growing a second head. Or bigger hands.

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    14 days ago

    After the mass deportations, all of the most fervent deportation enthusiasts should be required to work in the fields to compensate for the depleted agricultural sector.

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    14 days ago

    Somebody doesn’t want his government contracts and subsidies to be ended.

    I hope Harris wins so this asshole gets absolutely destroyed and deported.

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      14 days ago

      The US that was mostly funding SpaceX should have access to most of the parents that I’m sure they have if they are funding it. It’s wild that a lot of the work that could benefit the future generation that was funded by the current generations is owned by a corporation.

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        14 days ago

        99% of their “innovation” comes from pubic sector academia or stuff NASA already figured out anyway.

        IMO SpaceX shouldn’t have exclusive rights to any of it, really

        The only thing they’re really bringing to the table is money. NASA could be doing exactly the same stuff if the government actually treated it as a priority.

        • leftytighty@slrpnk.net
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          14 days ago

          “the only thing they’re bringing to the table is money” is true of every single capitalist and every single private company.

          We and our ancestors worked the land, built the machines, invented the innovations, increased our collective productivity, but a tiny fraction of people currently alive call dibs and lay claim to everything.

          When we ask for dignity and the bare necessities of life, not what we’re owed but just what we need to survive, they throw tantrums and threaten to leave.

          Let them leave, “capital flight” is only a problem if we care about capital. We workers produce and design and construct and deliver and maintain every single fucking thing, we are the economy. Let them leave.

          • novibe@lemmy.ml
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            14 days ago

            Honestly, “capital flight” is great. Cause the truth about it is the money leaves, but all the actually productive capital stays. The buildings, the land, the machinery, the infrastructure etc etc. Everything the owning class privately owned, stays. They can’t take a hospital, or a naval yard, or a factory, with them when they go 😂

            • leftytighty@slrpnk.net
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              14 days ago

              Exactly! It’s an empty threat in isolation. Of course the real threat is that you’ll get embargoed or otherwise undergo economic violence as capitalist owned governments around the world try to make an example of you.

              Generally though, capitalist fleeing just means less to take care of when we reclaim our freedom as workers, especially if you prefer non-violence

          • forrcaho@lemmy.world
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            14 days ago

            Yeah, money is a social construct; it’s really just numbers in computers. We can redefine capital to be numbers that actually make sense … uh, theoretically.

    • Coreidan@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      It matters not who the president is. Elon musk is in the rich boys club. Ain’t nothing will happen to him. The best we can do is hope for a disease to take him out.

    • nyahlathotep@sh.itjust.works
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      14 days ago

      He has US citizenship, at least according to wikipedia. Much as I hate him the government can’t just revoke that afaik

  • UpperBroccoli@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    14 days ago

    Like Milei’s strategy, Trump advisors see a leaner, stripped-down bureaucracy as the key to long-term national wealth.

    I rather suspect that “national wealth” would have to be interpretedas their personal wealth, not the wealth of the nation or any of its non-billionair populace. Policy by billionairs for billionairs.

    • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      Why you not e. Brain… e. Why, eye bleeding, why e. Please e. You e, puking blood please e.

  • someguy3@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    He’s suddenly worried about the deficit afaik. So to balance the budget while giving massive tax breaks to billionaires means people will suffer. Because free market or something.

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    14 days ago

    Sounds like the plot from any spy movie where the bad guy wants to nuke the planet in order for a more perfect civilization to be born out of the rubble. Which is to say, I think we can all acknowledge there is some truth to the statement.

    However, the rest of us rational thinkers might choose to prioritize other economic and legislative means before wiping out everyone but those who could survive a global disaster in their sub or extra terrestrial bunkers.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      The fun thing is that the rich tech bros who think they can ride out The Big One in their bunkers are aware that their security staff would have no fealty to them once money is no longer worth anything and they can’t figure out what to do about it… but some of the ideas they’ve come up with are hilarious, like exploding collars or locking up the food and hiding the key.

      Elon and Zuckerberg and the others would be shot in the head by their security chief the second that person realizes that they’re no longer being paid.

    • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      Sounds like the plot from any spy movie where the bad guy wants to nuke the planet in order for a more perfect civilization to be born out of the rubble. Which is to say, I think we can all acknowledge there is some truth to the statement.

      Except there’s no proof, let alone a guarantee, that out of the destruction that “a more perfect civilization” will be born. So, sorry, no. There’s no truth here to be acknowledged.