287
Musk wants to abolish consumer agency that has been a ‘model of efficiency’
(www.commondreams.org)
this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2024
287 points (98.0% liked)
politics
19240 readers
2275 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Musk has publicly praised the book, 'The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World,' that came out last year. The book, as you would assume, advocates for essentially unregulated, free market capitalism. I think Musk, and others like him, see a second Trump term as an opportunity to try and bring about the capitalist utopia that the book envisions.
If you're a capitalism supporter, this is likely good news. And long may the free market reign. If you're a socialist, well, you better be organizing workers like there's no tomorrow.
I very much doubt that tariffs and pissing off basically everyone outside if the US will help a goal of a global free market.
Well, they have to balance their commitment to global free markets with their desire to destroy countries run by Communists, or any country that isn't sufficiently Western and liberal in their political or economic philosophies. China is especially problematic, because they've accounted for so much of the global growth that's occurred over the last several decades, but they are ultimately run by Communists, and they are certainly not liberal or Western enough.
I remember last time Trump was in office. There were massive tariffs on european products as well. There are no communist countries in the European Union. Trump and his gang openly push the "America first" narrative and that very obviously means that every other country in the global market is under attack, even those who were traditionally viewed as allies. Communism is not the issue here.
We'll see if the US manages to bully the world into submission but I have my doubts. A free global market is bound by capitalist mechanics. If the US is not an attractive trade partner the export profits will be made elsewhere.
Yes, they are not consistent in their own logic. They are hypocrites. But that doesn't mean they aren't committed to global, free-market capitalism. They're committed to it in the same way a religious person might be committed to their faith, despite not following, or even knowing all of its precepts. In fact, the rules and definitions of global, free-market capitalism don't matter. The rules of capitalism are whatever they want them to be, similarly, again, to a pastor who molds his denominations religious teachings to whatever suits him.
The important thing is that musk is a classic libertarian grifter.
His cars are propped up by government subsidies (or they were, I think he's running into problems), starlink is heavily used by NASA, and the boring company is just another way to extract government money.
He'll pretend to be a global libertarian, but what he really wants is sky high tarrifs so he doesn't have to compete with Chinese electric cars.
Nor are closed borders a free market solution.