30s Summary

Elon Musk, in his unofficial role in the Trump administration, has criticised the inefficiency of the US government’s outdated computer systems, suggesting that the lack of functionality prevents successful audits and efficient fiscal management. Musk suggests improved IT services could trace taxpayers’ expenditure and detect fraud, implicating that inefficient systems are less a result of bad management, but more due to bureaucracy. He suggests blockchain technology could be a potential solution, creating a transparent, unalterable record of federal transactions.

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Elon Musk, known for his role in the upcoming Trump administration as an unofficial “Department of Government Efficiency” lead, recently revealed he’d rather be recognized as a volunteer IT consultant. This reveal came alongside Musk’s harsh criticism, on his own website X.com, about the poor state of the US government’s computer systems.

Musk’s main argument is that the US federal government’s computer systems and software are so old and ineffective that they cannot efficiently verify whether or not payments are fraudulent, wasted, or abused. This, in Musk’s eyes, is why the government is unable to pass basic audits—because they often don’t know or can’t clarify where taxpayers’ money is spent, which he finds crazy.

Musk also elaborated on his comments in response to followers’ questions on his original post. He believes that the US government, instead of upgrading their systems, is wasting money on software that simply doesn’t work. While some of this may be intentional, Musk believes that most of the time it’s due to the natural effect of a huge bureaucracy that doesn’t hold itself accountable for results. If the problem was mostly intentional, he adds, it would be simple to rectify it.

A standout point of Musk’s argument is his claim that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is still operating with very outdated equipment. Responding to a social media user who joked that the IRS’s computers looked like they were from the early 90s, Musk wrote “I wish. Sadly, it’s a lot worse than that.”

Though it’s uncertain whether Musk was just joking, his comments suggest the US government, one of the richest in the world, has failed to properly upkeep vital infrastructure. It’s worth noting that Musk’s observations don’t seem to have any political motivations. He doesn’t place blame on anyone in his comments, but instead suggests that the problem isn’t just about intentional poor management, but more about ingrained bureaucracy.

Musk appears to be looking for a neutral solution to speed up government accountability and promote technological progress—hinting that blockchain technology might do the trick.

The forthcoming Trump administration has already voiced intentions to make the US the global leader in cryptocurrency and blockchain tech. More than a few experts have highlighted that blockchain’s primary function is as an unchangeable record.

If applied on a nationwide scale, creating a main IT structure based on blockchain could ensure there’s a permanent record of all transactions conducted by the federal government. This would allow for mass audits while also potentially providing total transparency of tax allocation and spending.