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.

  • betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Staff it with rich fucks looking for relevence deep in that Musky sphincter and change it to “Department of Getting Eaten”. Efficiency accomplished.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    8 months 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"

    • Draghetta@lemmy.world
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      8 months 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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        8 months ago

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

  • sibachian@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    do “high-IQ” individuals even exist on the republican isle? why would a lefty want to get involved in this shit, especially unpaid? what idiot would accept unpaid labour under a multi-billionaire?

    • laserm@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      High IQ individuals definitely exist on the republican side. The only thing is that they are the most selfish kind (hence why they are republican) and hence they won’t work for free.

      • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one
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        8 months ago

        I would imagine there’s a few high IQ people willing to be exploited because they get to work with their heroes: Shit Bag #1 and Shit Bag #2.

      • voldage@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        IQ tests intentionally omit any questions related to empathy, emotional intelligence and creativity, so it can favour people from the top of the pile and act as accurate perdictor of success in ruthless capitalist society. It implicitly promotes lack of those traits in individuals and explicitly promotes the definition of intelligence that’s unrelated to them. While you don’t get lower scores if you’re highly creative or empathetic person, so it’s not directly a detrimental for society and can be a useful metric for some cases like specific jobs, it’s image as sole measure of intelect is manufactured to promote “specific kind of people”, to which group many republican businessmen would belong.

        I’m not disagreeing with what you said, just thought I’d expand on that.

  • unmagical@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    No high-iq individual will work 2 weeks per week with no pay in a society that requires money to live.

    • rustydrd@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      I want to believe this, too. But considering how there are smart people clubs with upwards of 50,000 members in the US that treat “passing” an IQ test as their sole entry criterion, I am sure there are some. Not all who have intelligence also have the wisdom to use it well.

    • ChocoboRocket@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      This isn’t aimed at the idiots who would line up around the block and work for free to be called high IQ by Musk. Doesn’t really matter though, it’s all performative

      They already know exactly what they want to cut, and billionaires don’t need a salary to realize profits from deregulation.

      The job being “no salary” isn’t indicative of how cost effictive a volunteer public servant could be - it is a dinner bell for the wealthy

    • ikidd@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      They’ll get paid by conservative think-tanks under the table so the Dept of Efficiency looks good and can pretend that it’s efficient.

      • Vash63@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        This is what I was thinking also. It will be filled with people getting paid by corps and special interests.

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      No they won’t… but rich people who can afford to support themselves while indulging in their love of making poor people will be lined up around the block.

      Making a position unpaid is a classic tactic to keep out the poors.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It’s disappointing so many aren’t getting this…

        It’s the same as “unpaid internships” being advantage to rich kids who can afford to work without pay.

        Like, there is an inordinate amount of rich assholes that would love to spend 80 hours a week finding way to cut taxes, regulations, and the social safety net.

        If you’re rich enough to begin with, this could pay a hell of a lot better than anything else you would spend your time on. Couple hundred million in the bank or stock market, and it would be more profitable than any actual job.

        And let’s be honest, Musk and Trump aren’t judging IQ by the freaking Wechsler exam, when rich idiots talk about IQ, they mean zeros in a bank account.

        • would_be_appreciated@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          People with that kind of money don’t work, they own. They’ll hire somebody to do those 80 hours while they rape underage trafficked girls.

        • chaosCruiser@futurology.today
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          8 months ago

          So, if you own a coal plant and the government is spending time and money on regulating your livelihood, then that would be an obvious thing to cut from the budget.

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            As a hypothetical sure…

            But we broke fossil fuel production records under trump, we broke them under Biden, and there’s no reason to think trump won’t break them again.

            For fucks sake, they had both of the only two options be pro-fracking this time…

            Billion dollar fossil fuel corporations don’t have to worry, they already bought both parties. And have been lobbying trump to leave Biden’s “signature climate change legislation” intact, because it makes them a bunch of money and comes with zero negatives.

            So as a hypothetical you’re example would fit.

            Except no one is doing this but currently:

            the government is spending time and money on regulating (fossil fuels)

            • TehWorld@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Right, but stick with me here… what if they could make MORE money? All they need to do is stop requiring them to clean out the lead in the toxic waste that they dump on their worker’s towns and the owners can put that money into another vacation house.

    • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Can you think of any other types of people who might be financially able to volunteer their time here…?

      Maybe those who have a vested interest in any number of outcomes that may result from their work there…?

    • meco03211@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      That’s a common tactic in scams. You want to weed out the actual intelligent people as early as possible lest they disrupt your scam. That’s why scam emails tend to have misspellings and grammatical errors. Smarter people instantly ignore that. Dumb people click on through.

      • slacktoid@lemmy.mlBanned from community
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        8 months ago

        So you’re saying we all should apply?

        So that we can disrupt this shit

          • slacktoid@lemmy.mlBanned from community
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            8 months ago

            im saying get in and get that cut, and also disrupt their agenda, i mean someone is gonna take that bribe, might as well take it and fuck their plan.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    8 months ago

    “high-IQ small-government revolutionaries”

    No, “rich people,” because nobody else can survive with no pay.

    • Kraiden@kbin.earth
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      8 months ago

      “Elon Musk’s” “new department” seeks “super high” IQ “staff” for “unpaid jobs”

  • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I don’t know about you all but as soon as Trump was elected I immediately resolved to cut my personal spending by as much as humanly possible. I’ve already canceled many of my subscription services and I have reduced my use of Amazon and other online purchases to absolute zero. I’m going to work on paying down every dime of debt I owe as soon as possible and save every penny. Because shit’s going to get fucked in the next 4 years with these clowns in charge. It’s gonna be a light Christmas in my household this year.

    I highly recommend you all do the same. Don’t be the last one holding the bag when the music stops and reality sets in. For example, look at the people in the UK after Brexit.

    • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      The UK was shit before Brexit, it was 14 years of austerity policies (read: cut health services, cut benefits, cut social housing, deregulation of services, legalisation of toxic dumping, I can go on…) by a right-wing “fiscally responsible” government who has left the current one with a sizeable financial black hole… that has brought the country to its knees.

      If we had Brexit but still maintained public services, there’s a good chance the country would have been fine.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        8 months ago

        If we had Brexit but still maintained public services, there’s a good chance the country would have been fine.

        It’s almost as if you couldn’t…

        • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          Well, I hear you. The NHS was dependent on an international talent of overworked nurses who dried up once Brexit went into effect. That indeed would have suffered regardless under any government. But cutting benefits, awarding billions of taxpayer money to non-existent PPE firms, and generally spitting on the public could have been mitigated I feel