How the Department of Government Efficiency Can Work

The irony of two billionaires—one with Tesla stock options, the other with a failed presidential run—championing populist reforms isn’t lost on anyone. Yet, like Mr. Musk’s ability to move markets with a single tweet, the symbolism of the appointment outweighs the mechanics. How far can two technocrats push the boundaries of influence, fueled by memes and digital populism?

For Messrs. Musk and Ramaswamy, DOGE is a proof of concept. The agency jokingly draws its name from a cryptocurrency publicly supported by Mr. Musk called Dogecoin, which itself began as a joke but became a financial lifeboat for millions of disillusioned retail traders tired of Wall Street’s gatekeeping. The agency echoes this frustration, selling a vision of government stripped of middlemen and inefficiencies—a leaner machine, powered by Silicon Valley logic. But if DOGE’s crackdown focuses on clawing back improper payments from the poorest sectors (Medicare, Medicaid), then “efficiency” becomes a sanitized word for austerity. Much like Mr. Musk’s target of a $2 trillion spending cut, DOGE is a promise that sounds profound until you realize its consequences.

Beneath the irony lies a broader generational rift: Boomers see much of the crypto and other creations of Silicon Valley logic as chaos, a threat to economic stability. Gen Z and Millennials see them as liberation: a decentralized lifeline in a system designed to fail them. It’s the younger, internet-savvy masses confronting the inefficiencies of yesterday’s systems—through both decentralization and, paradoxically, two ultra-centralized leaders.

Originally published in The Wall Street Journal's FutureView

Dec. 17, 2024