Comment by andreilys
2 months ago
We've tried that for decades, and look where it's gotten us.
Policy wonks and lawyers have run America into the ground with reckless spending and forever wars.
I would venture that introducing fresh ideas and technologists with first principles thinking will yield better results.
So weird. You cut the taxes of the most wealthy in this country, slash the corporate tax rate and our debt mounts. What is going on?
Fully agree. The academia gatekeeping in certain fields hasn’t served us well over the last decade or so.
Fresh ideas from individuals with experience from all walks of life should be entertained. Doesn’t mean they’ll be followed.
Furthermore, DOGE has no actual power administratively, really all they can do is advise. Congress would need to grant them power first. Saagar Enjeti gas a good take on this, he’s pretty well versed in Washington-Speak
The DOGE guys + Executive branch will try to get the Supreme Court to rule that the phrase "take care" in the Constitution means that the President has the power to fire any government employee at any time.
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artII-S3-3-1/...
I enjoyed his recent conversation with Lex, but I lost quite a bit of respect for his opinion on politics when he called the Cambridge Analytica scandal nonsense.
America has tried giving robber-barrons free reign before. How did that turn out?
Several things:
For one, who said anything about "first principles thinking"? Elon Musk has a pronounced ideological bias. Anyway, first principles thinking is practically useless when it comes to highly complex systems, because such systems do not behave in self-evident ways. Empirical knowledge is the only thing that gets you anywhere.
Moreover, "DOGE" is not a break from the status quo in any way. Corporate interests have informed governance since long before either of us were born. That, rather than "policy wonks," is the rot at the heart of the government. Forever wars happen because they are extremely profitable for weapons manufacturers, not because warfare is a wonkish policy.
The only novelty "DOGE" brings to the table is the aesthetics of an SF tech startup, which won't help the government any more than it helped WeWork. It'll actually do less: WeWork was taken seriously, at least for a while. "DOGE" is impossible to take seriously.
> forever wars
And yet they're allying with Trump and his Republicans? Republicans are responsible for the most recent US "forever wars", and Trump has threatened to invade various countries Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, publicly proposed annexing Mexico, Canada, Panama, and Greenland, has fired missiles into numerous countries like Syria, assassinated an Iranian general, etc.
And Trump loudly opposes various orgs that are responsible for holding aggressive powers at bay, like how NATO represents a check on Russia's apparent violent expansionism.
Trump's approach to geopolitics seems just as violent as his predecessors but more mercurial and erratic.
I would venture that introducing fresh ideas and technologists with first principles thinking will yield better results.
It could, maybe. Provided the people you appoint have some measure of credibility and integrity. Or at least seem to have some kind understanding of the basic mechanics by which governments (even when reduced to a bare minimum) need to operate.
Elon and Vivek plainly do not fit this description, and that should be screamingly obvious by now.