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Comment by nine_zeros | Hacker News Reader

> Austerity is probably not the answer. We need to redefine the economy and quick.

It isn't. But the dog and pony show going on is also not the right answer. Look at the president and the party - be honest - do you really think this group actually cares to fix anything in the country, with dignity and respect for humans?

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Asking myself: are the cuts practical and soundly made, done intelligently? The answer is overwhelmingly: no, absolutely not, absolutely never. Cutting small little beautiful things that make the world better down won't have any net impact, yet picking fights with NOAA and CFPB and other good forces is the main course time after time.

I want you to enumerate the dignity and respect issues as you see them. I think a general washing isn't going to be very good conversation.

> I want you to enumerate the dignity and respect issues as you see them. I think a general washing isn't going to be very good conversation.

Which one do you want to talk about?

- Cutting healthcare for masses while giving the super wealthy a tax cut?

- Pedophilia and protection of pedophilia while blaming the "others"?

- Abrupt kidnappings of people based on race when 40% of the country is not white?

- Reducing trust in institutions built by Americans over the decades like CDC while gaslighting parents to not vaccinate their kids?

No, but I also don't think that dignity and respect for humans is what moves the market.

> No, but I also don't think that dignity and respect for humans is what moves the market.

No but without dignity and respect for humans you get revolts - which moves the market.

DOGE was the hint of austerity and everyone shit themselves and freaked out about all the government layoffs and cost cutting. The same thing is happening in Argentina--the Peronists are on the rise again because nobody has the patience for any shred of a libertarian style of governance to work. Oh, and corruption, but we'll see about that. It would actually piss me off royally if Milei goes down because he couldn't resist having his own hand in the till. A lot is at stake, just the entire future of the human race and all that.

If DOGE were at all intelligent or backed by a law or anything other than Musk's weird drug addled personal preferences, I might agree. But it isn't. DOGE did things irrationally, and did things that potentially impact every citizens' personal security.

Between Musk and nothing getting done, I'll take Musk. We're in a far worse place than you think, this isn't fun and games.

Musk was using the government as a playground and a platform to build his personal brand. Nothing he did was “serious”. If they wanted to reduce the deficit, they’d close the carried interest loophole for hedge funds instead of running around on stage with chainsaws. That’d save around 1.3B per year which is far more than all the DOGE cuts combined. And, it wouldn’t cost a bunch of jobs.

I'll take getting nothing done, if that means the tax records and social security records stay secret. I'll also take nothing getting done over an un-elected, previously-illegal effort like DOGE. You have no idea what I think of the place we're in, but as far as government policy goes, nothing changing is a great default. Make a case for the change, including a cost/benefit breakdown, then we can talk.

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