this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
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Summary

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s new "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) began recruiting "high-IQ small-government revolutionaries" willing to work 80+ hours per week with no pay to help slash federal spending.

Appointed by President-elect Donald Trump, the panel is tasked with recommending spending cuts, regulatory rollbacks, and agency restructuring by July 4, 2026.

Musk and Ramaswamy advocate for drastic measures, including cutting grants to nonprofits and potential mass layoffs.

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[–] bstix@feddit.dk 13 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Ok, get this. You elect politicians to "help slash federal spending".

What the hell is Musk even doing and why is he outsourcing this job to unpaid idiots, when politicians already get paid to do this?

Okay, I'll do a few suggestions for free:

  • Stop subsidizing companies. All of them.
  • Tax the rich to boost the federal income.
  • Legalize all immigrants so they can be tax paying citizens.
  • Crack down on employers using illegal underpaid illegal immigrants.
  • Provide universal health care. Sick people don't work.
  • Cut down on police force spending.
  • Cut down on car infrastructure spending.
  • Cut down "defense" spending in artificial oil wars.
  • Help Ukraine to defeat Russia, so Russia will have to surrender and disarm their nukes, so that USA can also cut down on cost for maintenance of nukes.
  • Expand renewable energy. It's free energy yo, and it creates jobs for tax paying citizens.
  • Stop mining fossil fuels. It will cost more to clean that shit up than is earned.
[–] wildcardology@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago

Undocumented immigrants paid $96 billion in 2023, they don't benefit from them but imagine if all of them get to pay taxes.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 8 points 2 hours ago

I divide my officers into four classes; the clever, the lazy, the industrious, and the stupid. Each officer possesses at least two of these qualities. Those who are clever and industrious are fitted for the highest staff appointments. Use can be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy however is for the very highest command; he has the temperament and nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious is a menace and must be removed immediately!

--Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord

[–] JPSound@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

"High-IQ" aka boot lickers who agree with everything Musk says or does and are willing to do so for no compensation. And let's consider those who have the financial means "work" for free. The over privileged fundees who think they earned their wealth by hard work even those its all daddy's money... Rining any bells? Unpaid positions are exactly what we don't need to help with combat our economic woes anyways.

[–] rustydrd@sh.itjust.works 20 points 3 hours ago

Fun idea: Flood their contact addresses with fake applications and fake credentials like certificates with high scores on made-up IQ tests or Mensa membership cards.

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 0 points 32 minutes ago (1 children)

I don't know about you all but as soon as Trump was elected I immediately resolved to cut my personal spending by as much as humanly possible. I've already canceled many of my subscription services and I have reduced my use of Amazon and other online purchases to absolute zero. I'm going to work on paying down every dime of debt I owe as soon as possible and save every penny. Because shit's going to get fucked in the next 4 years with these clowns in charge. It's gonna be a light Christmas in my household this year.

I highly recommend you all do the same. Don't be the last one holding the bag when the music stops and reality sets in. For example, look at the people in the UK after Brexit.

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 1 points 21 minutes ago* (last edited 20 minutes ago)

The UK was shit before Brexit, it was 14 years of austerity policies (read: cut health services, cut benefits, cut social housing, deregulation of services, legalisation of toxic dumping, I can go on...) by a right-wing "fiscally responsible" government who has left the current one with a sizeable financial black hole.... that has brought the country to its knees.

If we had Brexit but still maintained public services, there's a good chance the country would have been fine.

[–] umbraroze@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

Ah, this will be the Department of Dunning-Kruger. The workers are idiots who think they are supergeniuses. Led by an idiot who thinks he's a supergenius.

During Trump's first term, this was just a metaphor, suggested by random comedians. Now, life will imitate art to its full extent.

[–] auzy@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

High IQ people only wanted to do paid work for SpaceX because going to space is amazing.

I'm fairly sure none are working because of him though

Even paid work for any other Musk jobs would be an act of desperation. Fortunately, I suspect the unemployment rate will grow with Trump in charge.. Because it is likely more profitable to beg than make minimum wage (and he won't be increasing it). So maybe he will find people.

[–] lurklurk@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

I think this will be easy to hire for; imagine the damage you can do to competition, or the low cost regulatory capture you can achieve, by just getting one clever manipulator near this not too bright narcissist

[–] WorldwideCommunity@lemm.ee 3 points 2 hours ago

Maybe he should ask Trump since everything he does is the best and has never been done better or before.

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago

lol good luck picking candidates among highly intelligent incels and maga members

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 21 points 6 hours ago

There are oxymorons and then there is musk, the oxyless moron

[–] Freefall@lemmy.world 14 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

You can't just make a department. Sorry Leon, only maga morons believe that. The actual government and CONSTITUTION work differently than what you think...

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 10 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, they would also need the other two institutions to pull this off. Oh wait, shit. Well the supreme court should be able to stop this. Oh wait, fuck.

[–] JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee 1 points 2 hours ago

What do you think Clarence Thomas would do for a Klondike bar? Do you think he'd support this weird, smart person recruiting bullshit? Absolutely.

[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Nobody was smart as he thinks they should be will work for free - especially not for him and the orange idiot.

[–] demizerone@lemmy.world 19 points 8 hours ago

They will make their money by fleecing the government of course.

[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 41 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Win a grift by pretending you are an idiot

Your opponent is Elon Musk

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 hours ago

Fuck. I can't out-stupid this guy. I won't win.

I think it'd be simultaneously easier, more productive, and more fulfilling to just take the L.

[–] mhague@lemmy.world 31 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

At least they're too cheap and lazy to properly push their fascist takeover.

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 16 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

It's just gonna be rich failsons who are loving off their trust funds. It's gonna be bad

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

yes they tried that in Turkey, president's highly incompetent son in law was made minister of Finance. At the start (2018) of this I think pounds/Turkish lira was sth like 4. He stayed for two years and it ended with maybe something like 10-12. As of now it is around 50 (people after him weren't that great either). Since nowadays production of almost anything in Turkey is tied to imports, prices of daily consumption goods as well as rent, housing etc went up by that amount too (salary increases not even comparable). good luck USA

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 29 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

They are calling it DOGE? 🙄🙄🙄

[–] hombre_fundido@lemmy.world 34 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

100% Musk's idea. Because he doesn't think the other 8 billion humans on the planet are real people and none of this is of any real consequence to him.

[–] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Co leader Vivek Ramswamy is the founder of DOGE coin.

[–] hombre_fundido@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

TIL. I always assumed doge coin was his thing since he seemed to promote so much. Either way, these guys are insufferable nerds.

Edit: I just read he actually referred to himself as the "Dogefather." Fucking cringe.

[–] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

Trumps staff already beat you by prefacing that only super high-IQ people understand the humor

[–] uebquauntbez@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago

No X in name, so not Leons idea.

[–] hombre_fundido@lemmy.world 12 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

Also, fuck that guy.

Edit: and by 'that guy' I mean Ramaswamy. Fuck Musk too.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 5 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Ew, I'd rather not fuck Elon. He's not my type.

[–] hombre_fundido@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Yeah, no one should actually be fucking Elon

[–] unmagical@lemmy.ml 265 points 15 hours ago (15 children)

No high-iq individual will work 2 weeks per week with no pay in a society that requires money to live.

[–] rustydrd@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 hours ago

I want to believe this, too. But considering how there are smart people clubs with upwards of 50,000 members in the US that treat "passing" an IQ test as their sole entry criterion, I am sure there are some. Not all who have intelligence also have the wisdom to use it well.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 29 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

They'll get paid by conservative think-tanks under the table so the Dept of Efficiency looks good and can pretend that it's efficient.

[–] Vash63@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago

This is what I was thinking also. It will be filled with people getting paid by corps and special interests.

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 166 points 14 hours ago (4 children)

That's a common tactic in scams. You want to weed out the actual intelligent people as early as possible lest they disrupt your scam. That's why scam emails tend to have misspellings and grammatical errors. Smarter people instantly ignore that. Dumb people click on through.

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[–] kautau@lemmy.world 38 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Can this department kick it off by eliminating itself, since it’s a wish.com version of https://www.gao.gov/

[–] Archer@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

It’s really great that is government efficiency department is in fact duplicative. An excellent microcosm

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