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Comment by James_K | Hacker News Reader

So you're telling me that government spending was continually going up, and while this happened our quality of life massively and suddenly improved? I feel like reversing this process is very bad.

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Unless nirvana is at 100% it has to stop somewhere. What im saying is it didn't continually go up during periods of like growth, and it's not clear such high federal spending is necessary or helpful in improving the human condition.

The US government has very low spending (it just appears high due to the military budget) and correspondingly many people in the US have very poor human condition. It's abundantly clear that government spending is a necessity to combat inequality. When the functions of government are privatised, the poor will lose access to these amenities, and the rich will begin to profit from them. The result is a system more unequal in both wealth and allocation. Likewise the destruction of regulations serves mainly to increase the ability for corporations to exploit individuals. These are all clear negative effects, and I have yet to see a positive case for this action. What benefits might there be to decimating the government? The only suggestion I've heard is that the private sector will magically do the government's job better than it can, which is absurd because they could already attempt this and have decided it isn't possible.

There may be a serious discussion to be had about government spending. But it seems that you believe Musk and the rest of the GOP are interested in it. If they were, the House GOP wouldn’t have released a budget that asks for 4 trillion debt limit increase while proposing 4.5 trillion tax cuts. Or SpaceX wouldn't be awarded another $40m contract. While it’s a drop in the bucket, serious people would at least raise questions about the massive conflict of interest.

Musk and his ilk are interested in looting the treasury. It has nothing to do with government efficiency.

Dude, maybe just admit that your edgelord libertarian fantasy of everything being a corporation is a bad idea. It's fine, you're allowed to change your mind.

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