RE: Overdue Correction
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I feel like there should be a different term to describe Trump and Elon types rather than 'businessmen'. Businessmen, to me at least, describes people who build up businesses and create economic opportunities within the rules and laws. Trump and Elon both disregard rules and laws entirely and crush everyone who stands in their way... I genuinely think that neither of them would have had any success in other developed countries, but the US judicial system is set up in a way where the wealthy can avoid or delay legal consequences.
I do think a correction has been a long time coming, but I also think this administration will turbocharge it as they try to get as much out of their positions of power as possible. I don't believe they're here to run the country like a business.
Well I think sadly there is a lot of pain to be had, but mainly because people relied on the government for SO MUCH, including employment.
I personally know someone who worked for the government and holy fuck batman, is it INEFFICIENT AS FUCK. This person got LECTURED because they did too much work. They showed up their colleagues and they were reprimanded for it. They took initiative and helped someone out with something outside of their wheelhouse but wanted to learn. They were AGAIN reprimanded.
The government, as a source of employment, is one of the most reprehensible places because it is so full of inefficiencies and corruption it is so difficult to fathom.
It's okay to be looking to work for the government as a council member or something like that, but there is so much administrative bloat and unnecessary roles and departments it's so difficult to imagine unless you are familiar with it. I feel bad for the people who work there, truly, because they do not know what it is like to work in the normal world where you need to be efficient, lean and flexible. Sure not everyone can attain that type of level, but there are lots of opportunities not at the government for folks to work at while also being productive employees instead of leeches.
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As far as them being businessmen, I certainly don't like either of them but I can't deny their intelligence at running things. They use the system the way it's set up, much the way as many people in their positions as possible do yet they are not in the headlines. There are VERY few people like Henry Ford left in this world where they build a successful business from the ground up by themselves and their merits. I could be completely wrong about Ford and he might be a piece of shit himself, but I hope you get the point. I think it's sadly a little too naive to think that is possible in the current world business, economic and political climate.
Do I like this being the case? Absolutely not!
Have I seen that someone like Elon took Twitter, a company suffering from massive bloat and unnecessary administrative middle management, turning it into a profitable company with the right amount of people? Yes and I have respect for him for that aspect.
I will also admit that it disgusts me that Elon relies so heavily on H1B Visa employees in all of his companies. That type of thing pisses me off because there are hundreds of thousands of brilliant Americans that could fill those roles but they don't because we have a higher standard of living in terms of wages, and these H1B visa people rely on the companies to sponsor them so they can't say squat about it, otherwise they lose their job and their visa.
Totally agree with a lot of this... there are a couple of reasons governments are full of inefficiencies - the main one being that people can literally die if they get things wrong, so working at a snails pace, checking everything a billion times and getting everyone's approval is so important because if they don't, they could mess things up way worse than any corporation ever could. Another reason is that the heads of the agencies keep changing... imagine running an organization different ways every 4 years - it must be ridiculous. I'm not defending governments, I'm 100% certain there are all sorts of bloat and inefficiencies, but I also understand we can't really know all the nuances unless we had full visibility ourselves.
I have worked on lots of projects, mostly in the private sector but I have worked on projects within both state and federal governments, and I will say that corporations often just throw money at problems to fix them, but the agencies I've worked with had to justify every dollar spent and it all got so scrutinized... it was frustrating to work with, but they did take spending tax payer dollars extremely seriously... obviously governments are massive so everyone'll will have very different experiences.
I think the next few years are going to teach us exactly how much the government impacts our lives.
I would honestly bet money on Twitter not being profitable.
They were profitable as a public company, but Elon came in, reduced the workforce by 75% and lost all their major advertisers. Their costs dropped dramatically but so did their revenue... and Elon saddled the company with $13B of debt, which costs $1B in interest annually. Is Twitter making over $1B more in revenue than its operating costs with less advertisers? I doubt it. I think that's why xAI had to buy Twitter/X, because it's probably nearly bankrupt.
Tesla isn't even profitable. It's operating costs were way more than its revenue from cars and powerwalls... the only reason it was in the black last quarter was because of its Bitcoin holdings and the carbon credits. I truly don't think Elon is a genius of business. If those Californian carbon credits go away, or Bitcoin drops too much, Tesla is in big trouble.
You're 100% right about the H1B visas. Elon doesn't want to pay for the best and brightest, he wants to pay low and he wants people who'll endure abuse.
It might sound completely bonkers, but could MrBeast be the current Henry Ford? He might be worth $1B starting from literally just him and a camera...
To your comment about Elon's businesses.. Elon and his businesses also get MASSIVE subsidies from the government. Tesla, from my recollection, was taking in gigantic amounts in subsidies from the US government. I despise subsidies because it doesn't incentivize people to do things well.
Yeah for sure agree with you on the serious impacts that government can have. I think there can certainly be ways to make it better. I say this as an armchair quarterback in a lot of ways.. I can think it would be good to do X Y or Z but I'm ultimately not in the decision making position. If I were, I suspect I would have a lot of other things that go into it. I guess I want to find a middle ground between efficient and helpful.
Yeah, absolutely agree.