An unpaid internship for the world’s richest man.
Pro Bonehead
Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy’s committee to slash government spending is now hiring — with one catch: you’ll be working for free.
On Thursday, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency announced on X-formerly-Twitter — which in the ouroborous of American oligarchy, Musk owns — that it would start accepting applications, albeit with some eye-brow raising demands.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators,” wrote the Department of Government Efficiency in the post. “We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.”
Sounds thrilling. But if performing totally unremunerative work for the world’s richest man is your thing — and if you sincerely think having a high IQ is worth bragging about — then “DM this account with your CV,” the account implored. “Elon and Vivek will review the top 1 percent of applicants.”
Doge Days
The Department of Government Efficiency is the brainchild of Musk and president-elect Donald Trump. Its shorthand, DOGE, is a joke referring to the meme-turned-cryptocurrency Dogecoin, a longtime obsession of Musk’s.
Trump initially tapped Musk for an undefined advisory role in his administration in August. The centibillionaire, who backed Trump to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, seemingly ran away with the idea and tweeted an AI-generated image of himself standing behind a podium labeled “DOGE – Department of Government Efficiency,” which was apparently enough to will the idea into existence.
In November, Trump formally named Musk along with Ramaswamy, a failed presidential candidate and Big Pharma moneymaker, to lead his government spending advisory board.
Despite the runaway success of its meme name, though, DOGE won’t be an official federal department — unless Congress approves its formation as such.
Slash and Burn
Musk’s involvement in the commission is fraught with drama, not least of all because his company SpaceX is among the nation’s largest government contractors. Since 2008, the aerospace manufacturer has received around $20 billion in federal funding, representing an enormous conflict of interest.
That said, Musk has stated that he wants to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, which is more than what the government used in discretionary spending last year, and nearly a third of its total $6.1 trillion in total spending.
His colleague Ramaswamy has previously called for firing 75 percent of the entire federal workforce, which would be more than two million employees.
As for the head honcho himself, Trump has made it a key message of his campaign to abolish the entire Department of Education. So maybe these “high-IQ” volunteers could have some sway.
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