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Most people who would like to see a major shake-up in the U.S. government applaud Elon Musk’s role as head of DOGE and advisor to President Trump. But Katherine Mangu-Ward offered an intriguing contrary idea in the podcast Reason Roundtable. The editor of Reason Magazine said about the business leaders at the inauguration, “I don’t want those guys to want to be there.” She talked about “really smart guys … creative forces” who think that the best use of their time is to stand behind Donald Trump. Perhaps the highest and best use of Elon Musk’s time and effort is not trying to reform the government.Neither Mangu-Ward nor I would want to compel Musk to work in a particular job, but she raised the interesting question, which I rephrase as what would most help human flourishing. Certainly Musk has made humanity dramatically better off while earning a bundle of money for himself. Paypal has enabled millions of mutually beneficial money transfers. Tesla made huge steps forward in electric vehicles. SpaceX has pioneered new approaches to space travel. Starlink enables internet access in remote places.And along the way Elon Musk became the richest man in the world. That’s not surprising, as the Nobel laureate economist William Nordhaus has found that entrepreneurs capture only 2.2%, on average, of the total economic value of their innovations. The rest goes to consumers and workers. So if Musk is worth $400 billion, his contribution to society might be in the neighborhood of $18 trillion. Perhaps the world would be better off if he devoted his time and talent to business and ignored government.What else could Musk do? Maybe devote more energy to his Boring Company, which is trying to revolutionize urban transport. And there are probably dozens if not thousands of projects that would benefit the world that he might implement, most of which we ordinary people cannot conceive of now.On the other hand, government can be a huge impediment to human flourishing and he may be even more proficient in that arena. There are certainly terrible examples of government, such as the Soviet Union, Germany under Hitler and China under Mao.But even milder mistakes have huge consequences. The European Union’s economy is running just a hair better than flat the last two years. And current forecasts show underperformance relative to the U.S. economy. China and its 1.4 billion citizens continue to grow their economy—but at a much slower pace than in previous years, and less than its potential, due largely to President Xi’s heavy hand. India has great potential that has been limited by over-regulation.Perhaps, then, the world’s greatest entrepreneurs could help the world by reforming governments. But is government outside of Musk’s technical competence? His early career included writing code for a website, then founding the company that became PayPal. However it’s worth noting the many interactions with government that his business career provided. One of PayPal’s predecessor companies was a bank, X.com, founded by Musk and federally regulated. (He later acquired the domain for use by Twitter.) All of Musk’s later companies have had substantial government interactions. SpaceX has contracts with NASA and regulation by the Federal Aviation Administration. Tesla cars must meet federal safety standards and qualify for federal tax breaks. Starlink is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. Neuralink must request approvals from the Food and Drug Administration. Elon Musk is no stranger to the government.There is no obvious way to know which of Musk’s choices would most help the world. We should probably rely on Musk’s own opinion on the subject.More By This Author:President Trump’s Day One: No Changes To Economic ForecastAI Agents Can Help Your Company And The Economy—EventuallyConsumer Spending Forecast 2025: Good Jobs And Savings Drive Growth
