Elon Musk’s position as the head of the Department of Government Performance, also known as DOGE, appears to be a significant step in an effort to reduce the bureaucracy’s errors. However, a disturbing situation permeates the language of cost-cutting and governmental streamlining.
The White House office, which was formerly known as the US Digital Service and later renamed the US DOGE Service on the first day of President Donald Trump’s subsequent expression, has been given the name” unique government individual.” The Musk team claims to improve efficiency and reduce reliability, but their ultimate objectives are both.
That may sound like a striking proceed toward Silicon Valley-style development in leadership. Nevertheless, the deeper desires driving Musk’s engagement are unlikely to be strictly moral.
Musk has an enormous business empire, passions in artificial intelligence, need for financial strength and a long-standing hatred for state oversight.
His access to sensitive state systems and the thick decision-making that has guided Expand to day have enabled Musk to obtain extraordinary economic and strategic advantages for both himself and his businesses, which include Tesla, the leader of space transportation, and SpaceX.
One specific historic parallel is intriguing. The British East India Company, a shopkeeper shipping firm, established itself as a trading body in the Indian Ocean in 1600 with exclusive rights to do business in the region before gradually gaining quasi-governmental authority and establishing its rule with an iron fist over American territories in Asia, including the majority of what is now India. The business was granted the right to issue money on behalf of the British queen in 1677.
In my forthcoming guide,” Who Elected Big Tech” I‘ll explain how. Similar instances of private companies retaking over state functions are occurring in the US.
However, what took ages during the colonial period is now unfolding at a lightening speed in just a few days thanks to digital means. Real trading posts and personal armies have been replaced by digital financial systems and data access in the twenty-first century. Communications are the key to energy then, rather than brute power.
The information network
When examining his business empire, it becomes clearer to see Musk’s actions as a strength get. He is in charge of several businesses that are subject to government regulations and have national deals.
In industries where government oversight may make or break wealth, SpaceX and Tesla, as well as The Boring Company, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and the artificial intelligence business xAI, all operate in industries.
Musk is direct and possibly demolish the government organizations that have typically hampered his organizations in his new position. Tesla’s Autopilot program has been subject to numerous investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Musk has received punishment from the Securities and Exchange Commission for his market-moving tweets, and SpaceX has been hampered by environmental laws.
All of these monitoring mechanisms could be weakened or eliminated through DOGE, disguised as effectiveness, or both.
But Musk’s unparalleled access to government statistics makes up the most disastrous aspect of his position as CEO of DOGE. Expand employees reportedly have electronic authorization to view data in the US government’s transaction system, which includes bank account information, Social Security numbers and income tax documents. Apparently, they have even seized the ability to change the system’s application, data, transactions and records.
Many media reports suggest that Musk’s staff has already changed the rules governing the processing of payments for Social Security recipients and government contractors to make it simpler to halt payments and keep records of payments that have been blocked, made, or altered.
However, Expand people merely require the ability to create copies of the country’s most sensitive personal information.
A federal prosecutor has forewarned that from happening, at least for the time being. Even so, by transferring the data to Grok, Musk’s xAI-created artificial intelligence program, which is already connected to the Musk-owned X, previously known as Twitter, it would have an unmatched ability to predict economic changes, identify state vulnerabilities, and model vote behavior.
That’s a lot of information and strength for one person, which is disturbing.
Cryptocurrency revolution?
Like Trump himself and many of his closest experts, Musk is likewise deeply involved in bitcoin.
The horizontal development of Trump’s personal crypto and DOGE’s visible alignment with the bitcoin known as Dogecoin suggests more than just coincidence. I think it demonstrates a concerted plan to control American money and economic policy, essentially putting the country in entirely private hands.
The genius – and danger – of this technique lies in the fact that each action might seem justified in isolation: modernizing authorities systems, improving effectiveness, updating payment infrastructure. However, they also act as the framework for the transfer of even more financial power to the already rich.
How he might possess his new powers are reflected in Musk’s autocratic tendencies, which are visible in his violent management of X and his claim that it was against the law to publish the names of those who work for him.
Companies that favor Musk may face unanticipated audits, and governmental bodies that are looking into his businesses may find their budgets cut, and allies may have privileged access to government contracts.
This isn’t debate – it’s the natural expansion of DOGE’s expert combined with Musk’s demonstrated behavior.
Critics describe Musk’s activities at DOGE as a large commercial coup. People just refer to it as a revolution. The opposition movement is gaining momentum in Washington, DC, and around the state, but it’s unlikely that street protests only can prevent what Musk is doing.
Who can successfully look into a team that attempts to eliminate monitoring itself? Prior to the Musk operation’s start, the administration’s improper fire of at least ten inspector general hints at a deliberate attempt to obstruct accountability in the government.
The Republican-led Congress, strongly aligned with Trump, may not want to move in, but even if it did, Musk is moving much faster than Congress actually does.
Destroy the state, create a business nation?
Together, Musk and Trump’s actions form what cryptocurrency investor and entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan refers to as” the network state.”
A digital country does emerge online before establishing any physical appearance. Instead of declaring democracy and fighting for it, the channel state builds community and electronic systems like a technology startup company with its own bitcoin.
Alternatives would be impossible to come by by the time a Musk-aligned cryptocurrency became standard because of the main structure and relationships currently exist.
Converting more of the nation’s economic system to privately held cryptocurrencies do remove federal governments from their own citizens. Musk has now begun this endeavor, making use of his wealth and social media reach to run for office in Germany, as well as several other European nations.
A country that is run by those who could afford to purchase the electronic currency do no longer be run by the people who live in its place. In this situation, I’m concerned that Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, or Palantir, the AI-surveillance conglomerate, will make Congress’s control of government spending and actions useless. Along the way, it may end up removing the ability to keep presidents responsible from the judiciary, Congress, and citizens.
All of this certainly presents a slew of conflict-of-interest issues that are completely unheard of in terms of range and scope.
The question facing Americans, thus, isn’t whether federal needs development – it’s whether they’re willing to sacrifice politics in pursuit of Musk’s edition of effectiveness.
We’re necessarily altering the partnership between personal power and public governance when we give tech leaders immediate control over government functions. I believe we’re undermining American national security, as well as the strength of We, the Citizens.
The most hazardous inadequacy of all may be the Americans ‘ inaction in handling this crisis.
Allison Stanger is Middlebury’s Distinguished Endowed Professor.
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