Summary

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) began recruiting “high-IQ small-government revolutionaries” willing to work 80+ hours per week with no pay to help slash federal spending.

Appointed by President-elect Donald Trump, the panel is tasked with recommending spending cuts, regulatory rollbacks, and agency restructuring by July 4, 2026.

Musk and Ramaswamy advocate for drastic measures, including cutting grants to nonprofits and potential mass layoffs.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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    3 days ago

    This dipshit thinks he can save the country 2 trillion dollars by firing government workers.

    Even if he fired every single government position in the entire country, he couldn’t make up 2 fucking trillion dollars out of that. The budget for payroll is, what? Like 15% of the total spending?

        • Mossy Feathers (She/They)@pawb.social
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          3 days ago

          I had to look up what an “endomorph” is; sounds like it’s the “built like a tank” body type. So I mean, c’mon man. I know the kinda people you’re aiming for, but you hit a bunch of other people in the process. Not judging you too hard, I’ve done the same thing (and will probably continue to make the same or similar mistakes), but… Yeah.

          Edit: to explain my discomfort, based on what I’ve read, “endomorph” is a body type that could be described as stocky. Not fat, not obese or stupid or a meathead, but just stocky. I’ve known people like that, and none of them were the kinda people who’d get fooled by Trump. They weren’t stupid, they were in very, very good shape, and they were kind people. The implication in the post, however, is that people who have that body type are easily grifted by Trump & Co.

          (Also, fat shaming isn’t a very nice thing to do. You might think obese people are ugly or gross, but they’re still people and they still have feelings. Don’t be a dick.)

              • DogPeePoo@lemm.ee
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                2 days ago

                It was not meant to imply “that chunky people are easily grifted”, my intent was that Elon & Trump were the endomorphs, but it was obviously easily misconstrued.

                Either way, your point was valid and it has been edited :)

              • DogPeePoo@lemm.ee
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                2 days ago

                Thanks for the constructive criticism, it has been edited for a better meaning

    • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The funny thing is this sweep will likely be very indiscriminate so among those fired many will have voted for Trump hoping groceries will be cheaper. They will learn first hand what happens when you entrust government to psychopaths and techbros.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      This dipshit thinks he can save the country 2 trillion dollars by firing government workers.

      This dude has no intention of saving anyone but himself.

    • masterofn001@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago
      1. Eliminate military budget

      2. Eliminate all social services, payroll, including ACA, social security, etc.

      3. Suck Putin’s dick

      4. Profit.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) began recruiting “high-IQ small-government revolutionaries” willing to work 80+ hours per week with no pay to help slash federal spending.

    Future headline : “Department of Government Efficiency still completely without staff as those meeting the high requirements to take the job are smart enough to have zero interest in doing the job under those conditions"

    Alternate future headline: “Department of Government Efficiency plagued by yet another scandal as its 45th employee is charged with fraud for attempting to personally gain financially from fraud they were perpetrating in the government”.

    • Draghetta@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      How does one apply to live in such futures? Because this timeline looks like a bunch of rich douches will join the committee, use it to get richer and live happily ever after.

      • jaybone@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I’m guessing they cut government departments, then privatize them by outsourcing the work to their own companies. Sounds like a solid grift.

  • superkret@feddit.org
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    3 days ago

    Spoiler

    Lot’s of people are gonna apply, cause the payment is the chance for grifting

  • bstix@feddit.dk
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    2 days ago

    Ok, get this. You elect politicians to “help slash federal spending”.

    What the hell is Musk even doing and why is he outsourcing this job to unpaid idiots, when politicians already get paid to do this?

    Okay, I’ll do a few suggestions for free:

    • Stop subsidizing companies. All of them.
    • Tax the rich to boost the federal income.
    • Legalize all immigrants so they can be tax paying citizens.
    • Crack down on employers using illegal underpaid illegal immigrants.
    • Provide universal health care. Sick people don’t work.
    • Cut down on police force spending.
    • Cut down on car infrastructure spending.
    • Cut down “defense” spending in artificial oil wars.
    • Help Ukraine to defeat Russia, so Russia will have to surrender and disarm their nukes, so that USA can also cut down on cost for maintenance of nukes.
    • Expand renewable energy. It’s free energy yo, and it creates jobs for tax paying citizens.
    • Stop mining fossil fuels. It will cost more to clean that shit up than is earned.
    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Russia will have to surrender and disarm their nukes,

      Interesting. During the Cold War, that was unthinkable, mostly because there’d be nobody to counterbalance a US monopoly on nuclear arms. Things have proliferated considerably since then, so perhaps a nuclear Russia isn’t as important. If anything, they’re proving themselves to be a liability.

    • wildcardology@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Undocumented immigrants paid $96 billion in 2023, they don’t benefit from them but imagine if all of them get to pay taxes.

    • sibachian@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      my bingo card is almost full, just missing universal basic income - people with money, spend money, supporting businesses and thus “the economy”.

    • KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      I just wanted to add some context for one of these bullets.

      The US is upping the amount it spends on nuclear weapons maintenance and production because China has reentered the game as a major player. They’d been stable at 300-350 warheads for decades but is expected to ramp up to producing 100+ per year by 2030.

      So one major adversary has just been replaced by another. Everything old is new again, including the cold war arms race.

      • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        How are they making them? Just fuel reprocessing? You can make them pretty cheap as a side effect at scale of you want to. US can’t though.

        • KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 day ago

          Reprocessing of old pits.

          It’s more a matter of precision, purity, infrastructure, and staffing.

          And you can have them effective/guaranteed to work, safe/without personnel or environmental contamination, or cheap. Pick two.

      • bstix@feddit.dk
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        2 days ago

        That would be nice, but they won’t suddenly surrender.

        Russia already lost 500000-700000 men. This war only ends when Moscow is in ruins or when the nation is bankrupted.

  • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Good grief. It’s like he asked ChatGPT “how do I hire people suffering from the Dunning-Kruger Effect?”

    Dear meme-lords: I need something with much more facepalm than the Picard one. A “super facepalm” if you will. Thank you.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Appointed by President-elect Donald Trump, the panel is tasked with recommending spending cuts, regulatory rollbacks, and agency restructuring by July 4, 2026.

    I don’t know why all the people who defended Biden wasting two years of the House/Senate are so worried about trump having 2 years of the House/Senate.

    According to them no one can get anything accomplished in 2 years, and historically trump won’t hold onto both the House and Senate for midterms.

    The big difference seems to be Trump’s incoming admin isn’t waiting till 1/6 to start thinking about stuff, so they’ve got a big headstart on Biden’s admin.

    It’s going to be real fucking embarrassing for moderates if trump pulls off something they just spent four years claiming was impossible.

    • Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world
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      The big difference seems to be Trump’s incoming admin isn’t waiting till 1/6 to start thinking about stuff, so they’ve got a big headstart on Biden’s admin.

      You’re right, the appointment announcements so far weren’t a result of thinking.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      According to them no one can get anything accomplished in 2 years

      The difference is that it’s a lot easier and faster to break things than it is to build or repair them.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Not always.

        Like, all the deportations, that would “break” our society, but to even attempt it would take huge amounts of money, planning, and competent people. Even to do it poorly.

        Hell, even his threat to get rid of Department of Education, he can’t just say “you’re fired” and then everyone goes home. I mean, he could say that, he could order their pay stopped, he could even lock the doors and shut off all the networked IT.

        But there would be a metric shitton of legal proceeding and resulting settlements for years.

        It’s just crazy to me that everyone thinks turning (at least the remnants of) a democracy into a dictatorship is just fucking declaring it like Michal Scott declares bankruptcy.

        He’s 100% going to try, I just don’t know why people suddenly expect trump and his sycophants magically became competent in the last four years.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          2 days ago

          But there would be a metric shitton of legal proceeding and resulting settlements for years.

          I stand by my statement that breaking shit is faster and easier and takes less thought than fixing or rebuilding it.

          Yes it can be rebuilt through those means you mentioned, but the intervening generation will be fucked over pretty hard.

          I’m hoping the Incompetence that he is bringing (not to mention the infighting and backstabbing) can blunt some of the damage that he’s promising to do.

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    These people who get so incredulous about “soft” social sciences, (think critical theory) yet talk about IQ testing like it’s Newton’s 4th law do not value, or do not understand the science. Even the serious people who defend IQ in good faith, speak of it with qualifications.

    What is so attractive about a system to categorize and rank humanity? And what do the people who are attracted to it have in common?

    • minnow@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Fascists love the notion of a natural order, because it gives them license to hold power over people “lower in the hierarchy.” They’ll use anything and everything to establish whatever “natural order” serves their purpose at any given moment, and IQ works quite nicely in a lot of situations.

  • Zier@fedia.io
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    3 days ago

    M-elon Head to run the department of slavery with un-paid workers. What an unstable ‘genius’.

      • SquatDingloid@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Drinking asbestos paste lets you escape the simulation

        And it’s delicious

        The government doesn’t want you to know this

        They want it all for themselves

  • auzy@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    High IQ people only wanted to do paid work for SpaceX because going to space is amazing.

    I’m fairly sure none are working because of him though

    Even paid work for any other Musk jobs would be an act of desperation. Fortunately, I suspect the unemployment rate will grow with Trump in charge… Because it is likely more profitable to beg than make minimum wage (and he won’t be increasing it). So maybe he will find people.

  • lurklurk@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I think this will be easy to hire for; imagine the damage you can do to competition, or the low cost regulatory capture you can achieve, by just getting one clever manipulator near this not too bright narcissist

    • TehWorld@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Corporations will be stumbling over themselves to insert HIGHLY paid people into these positions.