As someone with an above average (not difficult) interest in fiscal policy, in the peak Elon fanboy demographic, and an enjoyer of big bets, I was pleased to see Trump’s appointment of Elon Musk and shit-stirrer extraordinaire Vivek Ramashwamy to the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE.
Doge, for those who don’t know, is also the name of a meme-coin, which is a cryptocurrency with no underlying value bar the fact that it is connect to a meme. It should be worthless, but in the past month has soared over 250%. This is going to be difficult to explain to the grand kids.
Back to the department, I think it is excellent that a government is putting together a taskforce to address waste and inefficiency. Listening to Elon speak about it earlier, it was reassuring to hear that this wasn’t some arch conservative “slash and burn” approach; Mr Musk was a big believer that regulations and certain social programs were fundamental to a healthy, thriving society. What is anathema to this is the time, money, effort and possibility that is wasted by inefficiency and mismanagement.
There are over 450 agencies in the US Federal Government, meaning they’re growing at almost 2 a year. More agencies means more complexity, which slows things down. As an example, Elon said that the first thing they do when they build a new rocket is ask for a permit from the government, and by the time they design, test, build, and prepare the rocket for takeoff, they then have to wait sometimes months for the paperwork to be filed. That isn’t great.
DOGE could be a complete mess, or it could be forgotten about by Thanksgiving next year. But I like people who are brave enough to try something new, even if it sounds crazy.