A Megalomaniac?

Elon Musk, who we have known as the richest man in the world for a few years now, is a complex personality. He campaigned for Donald J. Trump during the presidential election, and now, leading a government department, he is also a politician of sorts. Then again, he is a celebrity for many people who aspire to see humanity reach Mars in their lifetimes. With immense power comes immense criticism, both due to his wealth and connections to the US president and his treatment of his workforce. Elon Musk treats his workers with a demanding, "ultra hardcore" approach, often expecting long hours, high-intensity work, and near-perfect performance. This creates a stressful and toxic work environment, particularly at Tesla and recently at Twitter (now X), where he has implemented policies requiring employees to demonstrate "extreme hardcore" commitment or face termination. So, when he took over Twitter, naturally much of the workforce left and more were let go. 

Then, he changed its name to ‘X,’ which was an unpopular name change and faced pushback from users. Along with these crises in the company, Musk manipulated the Twitter algorithm to promote his tweets. This happened after Musk expressed support for Donald Trump's presidential campaign and after a Super Bowl tweet didn't get as much engagement as President Joe Biden's. The algorithm now artificially boosted Musk's tweets by a factor of 1,000—ensuring his tweets ranked higher than anyone else's in the feed. Internally, this is called a “power user multiplier,” although it only applies to Musk. 

32.7 million users have quit the platform ever since Musk’s purchase, and Twitter is nowhere near making a profit. Twitter is now seen as a biased platform. Musk has effectively ruined Twitter, and his involvement in governmental programs risks ruining them too. In November 2024, a new program called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DODGE, was announced, led by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. With Vivek stepping down from his position, Musk is now controlling a department that can block funding for other departments. DODGE aims to cut governmental spending to reduce the national debt of $30 trillion. 

However, this is proving to be an extremely difficult task. You see, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Child credits, interest on debt, and other mandatory government programs account for 2/3rds of government spending, and these expenses come under “mandatory expenses,” which are essential to be paid off. The remaining 1/3rd of spending is non-mandatory spending, which DODGE aims to cut—around $2 trillion—to help pay off the debt and reduce interest payments in the process. The catch is that the remaining 1/3rd of spending goes to the military, grants to schools, and medical research. The Republicans have a strict pro-military policy, leaving those funds out of question for cuts. Thus, social security, public benefit programs, and grants to schools and medical research are the most likely going to be the target of cuts. 

Without these benefit programs and increasing expenses due to tariffs, more and more Americans will be pushed into poverty. Medical research will also face immense strain. The US has already pulled out of entities like the WHO and the Paris Agreement, but all of this will barely account for $500 million—only 0.025% of the $2 trillion target—while hurting critical programs that have made significant strides in the fight against climate change, eradicated polio, and helped to nip COVID in the bud after only three years of its appearance in China. The US, being the world’s richest country, was the largest funder of this organization. 

Overall, Musk’s plans have not only ruined the platform he has bought, but his partnership with Trump promises to ruin the lives of millions of Americans and hundreds of millions of human beings.

All the while, Musk, the richest man in the world, continues to enjoy the luxuries of life and everything humanity has to offer.