Elon Musk Praises Milton Friedman: Government is Just One BIG DMV!

Could the government possibly move any slower?

The US economy has produced some of the greatest economic minds, including individuals like Milton Friedman. At the same time, we also have many innovative and entrepreneurial individuals like Musk who have revolutionized multiple industries in the country.

So why are we falling prey to a self-imposed economic decline?

It is certainly not due to the lack of knowledge or means to innovate, but rather our decision to let our government grow out of control. The government has now clearly surpassed its original purpose and ballooned our national debt to a new historical high.

Our views and approach to government need to change in response to this perversion. It’s time to starve the beasts and focus on returning the government to a more hands-off, business-friendly entity, which makes common-sense financial decisions.

The media and members of the DNC have been trying to paint people like Elon Musk as a madman who wants to dismantle the US government. In reality, Elon Musk’s ideas fall more in line with older and sounder economic principles from seasoned economic veterans like Milton Friedman. DOGE represents a model that can help bring the United States back to its former glory by implementing economic principles that have already passed the test of time.

Elon Musk Praises Milton Friedman

Elon Musk recently voiced his support for Milton Friedman, who is arguably one of the strongest intellectual promoters of free-market capitalism. Elon Musk recently shared a video interview of Milton Friedman and discussed how many of his economic ideas are still relevant today.

In this video, Milton discussed the natural tendency for humans to care more about the money they spend on themselves, and how humans tend to care less when someone else is paying for them. The situation with government agencies is, as he noted, much worse because they are spending somebody else’s money on somebody else.

“Now what happens when you spend somebody else’s money on somebody else? You’re a distributor of welfare funds. You're interested in making your own life as good as you can. And most people have humane instincts and want to do the best they can, but you’re not going to be anything like as careful in spending somebody else’s money on somebody else.”

The failure of our government is largely because we have lost sight of this simple economic fact. If good intentions were enough to make prudent financial decisions with US taxpayer funds, we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in now with our national debt.

In this sense, DOGE is not even a revolutionary act, and it only seems wild because our government is so out of touch with reality and basic logic. The ideas that Elon and Vikek have pitched seem very similar to Milton Friedman’s economic views, which eventually led him to receive the Nobel Memorial Prize. DOGE is a clear solution to help balance these conflicting interests and ensure that every federal agency acts on behalf of the American people. Hopefully, people will see DOGE as the new norm.

Addressing the Soaring Debt

The Federal Reserve has enabled a monster, allowing the US government to increase its debt through wasteful spending on domestic issues and foreign conflicts that do not impact our national security.

Milton Friedman has often discussed how it is crucial to focus on government spending when managing the national debt.

“The thing you should keep your eye on is what the government spends, and the real problem is to hold down government spending as a fraction of our income, and if you do that, you can stop worrying about the debt.”

If everyone in the country understood how the Federal Reserve worked, our government would likely be forced to end the Federal Reserve to sustain support from its voters. Without preventive measures, the federal and state governments will have to raise taxes to cover all of the wasteful spending that has taken place. We need to go after the Federal Reserve and the government to truly reconcile these growing economic pains.

Sadly, many people are unaware of how there are multiple ways we have to pay for wasteful government spending. What is discussed less is that citizens will also have to pay indirectly through inflation if the Federal Reserve keeps enabling the government to spend more money. If anyone decides to invest to attempt to outpace the growth of inflation, they will also have to pay capital gains taxes, which are not reduced based on inflation. There is no way to escape these simple economic facts.

DOGE: Taking the DMV out of the Government

Imagine if the DMV moved even slower because it was too busy regulating drivers in other countries around the world and providing VIP support to DNC elites. This is the current state of the US government.

Elon Musk’s new vision for the government will help cut out all of the unnecessary clutter and wasteful spending and ensure that Americans get the most out of their taxes. Contrary to prevailing sentiment, Elon is not on a massive power trip and only wants DOGE to operate for two years. There is not a single federal agency in the United States that has ever embarked on a similar quest.

Many analysts used to mock Tesla and say that Elon was not a suitable CEO and that Tesla might go bankrupt. In a rare move, Elon Musk powered through and slept inside the company’s factory, with efforts that eventually allowed Tesla to become one of the largest companies in the United States.

Tesla was a bit of an underdog, but the United States is the world’s largest economy. One doesn’t have to be rocket science to know that Elon and Vivek have much more room to create value when given the power to cut out some of the inefficiencies of the US government. The sky's the limit. There are not really any appropriate benchmarks, save for wildly successful transformations in economies like El Salvador and Argentina.

To be successful, we will need to cut some federal agencies and potentially even eliminate some. In one interview, Milton Friedman provided a detailed response about which federal agencies should stay or go.

Keep or Reduce: Department of Defense, Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, Department of State, and Treasury Department.

Abolish: Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Education, National Institute of Health, Housing and Urban Development, Department of Labor, and Department of Transportation.

He also made the following points about these agencies, as the answer was not as clear:

• The Department of Energy should function under the Department of Defense, as energy security is related to national security.

• The Department of Interior shouldn’t own as much federal land as it owns.

• We should get rid of Veteran Affairs and make a lump sum payment.

Friedman has emphasized that trimming the government like this would produce less waste and allow the government to focus on its fundamental functions.

“What are its fundamental functions? Preserve the peace. Defend the country. Provide a mechanism whereby individuals can adjudicate their disputes..that’s the Justice Department. Protect individuals from being coerced by other individuals, the police function. And now this is both the central government and the state and local governments.”

We clearly have a lot of room to cut federal agencies without depriving people of the liberties they deserve. Furthermore, there is a lot of room to allocate more power to the state and local governments, particularly in areas like law enforcement. These similar ideas posed by the Trump administration are backed by this Nobel Prize-winning economist.

Returning to Individual Liberty and Accountability

The tragic tale in the United States is the rise of socialist ideals, in which people want to evade personal responsibility and look to the government to provide solutions. Until this thought pattern is eradicated, it is going to be very difficult to convince people that cutting down the government is the best option for our economic prosperity.

Milton Friedman has pointed out how societies that aim for equality often fail to achieve it.

“In my opinion, a society that aims for equality before liberty will end up with neither liberty nor equality. And the society that aims first for liberty will not end up with equality, but it will end up with a closer approach to equality than any other kind of system that has ever been developed.”

This legendary quote from Friedman was given in response to a Stanford student criticizing some of the shortcomings of capitalism. It is very important to remember that the government can’t produce the utopian-like conditions that many democrats aspire for, and our traditional system of capitalism still holds the record for producing the best balance of liberty and equality. Moving away from this system is very dangerous, as there are plenty of tragic historical benchmarks.

Society has to stop looking to the government as a solution to implement justice and fix economic issues. In many cases, it is the primary cause of these issues. The pursuit of economic liberty itself is very righteous and will do the most to alleviate suffering and inequality. Many economies have raised their standard of living through capitalism during the past few decades, and it is best for everyone if we keep it that way.