The people running it have track records we can assess, and have signaled their goals and in some cases stated them outright. This is simply judgement.
Elon's track record is to consistently succeed spectacularly with things that most people find laughably impossible to do. That's why I don't dismiss this project.
I missed there they stated outright that they're "only interested in enriching themselves and their cronies"?
> > Elon's track record is to consistently succeed spectacularly with things that most people find laughably impossible to do
Entrepreneurship should be about making people's lives better and the measure of such improvement is very hard but could be measured by imagining a company disappear and evaluate the consequences on society.
If Musk companies disappeared tomorrow nothing would substantially change, if you disappeared Microsoft, Google, TMSC, JPMorgan, ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco... you'd have civil war within a week.
Having a rocket land on its butt might be technically impressive but so is a 23 minute guitar solo which doesn't push any emotional chord in the listener whereas a 20 seconds note bend by David Gilmour in the right moment of a song brings people to tears.
As of today Musk companies are mostly performance art that you could disappear without any real consequence, that could change in the future but it has been 25 years now, not gonna hold my breath on that.
There are two things rich Republicans hate more than anything in the world: the government spending "their" money on services for ordinary folks, and regulations preventing them from making even more money. This is often dressed up as "libertarianism," but in reality, it's simply worship of money as the ultimate virtue.
What sorts of organizations does DOGE want to defund? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the IRS, the Department of Education, Planned Parenthood, PBS and NPR: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lindseychoo/2024/11/27/elon-mus.... Nevermind that these make up a tiny portion of the intended 2 trillion in cuts.
Oh, I would not be surprised to see Musk "succeed spectacularly" in this endeavor. But that's because money is power, and Musk has more of it than anyone in the country. I mean, he even bought himself a president! It's difficult to lose when you can just keep throwing cash at the problem.
By the way, nobody is ever going to tell you outright that they're "only interested in enriching themselves and their cronies." An intelligent adult should be able to interpret reality based on available evidence. If you wait for someone to throw off their mask and reveal themselves a cackling villain, you will find yourself an easy mark.
That Forbes article is just a Forbes journalist guessing what DOGE might do, based on things they've mentioned in passing.
Of course that doesn't add up to 2 trillion in cuts!
The Reich article is mostly him making up evil things DOGE might do, and then criticizing them for these imagined plans.
Once DOGE has real plans and proposals I'll be happy to mock them if they don't make sense. I agree their goals sound very difficult, but I've learned that there are always smarter people than me out there. Maybe you can at least agree with that last part :)
I could imagine a world where trying to completely eliminate the deficit in a short amount of time does dramatically more harm than the increase in the debt.
