If I Had A Hammer

We’ve all heard the saying, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” The lesson is that when you only have one way to solve problems, that will be your go-to method for solutions. The original quote was attributed to Abraham Maslow who modified the original, “Give a small boy a hammer and he will find that everything he encounters needs a pounding.” This is an example of cognitive bias and has been named Maslow’s hammer or the law of the instrument.

Today, we see that our nation’s problems are in the hands of two prominent individuals from different backgrounds. Donald Trump is a wealthy real estate mogul, born into wealth, with a history of taking on many different ventures with varied success. Elon Musk, on the other hand, was born into affluence but managed to build upon that with great success. Both, however, are businessmen who see most everything with a profit-and-loss attitude. Their hammer is profit.

Some individuals may perceive this positively when considering a government that is often criticized for its liberal spending of tax revenues. One of the key factors contributing to Donald Trump's election was the belief that a businessman might be more effective in governing than a seasoned politician. The expectation was that a business-oriented approach could potentially reduce the national debt, manage tax dollars more efficiently, curb inflation, and eliminate governmental waste.

Although it may seem logical to view government operations from a business perspective, this overlooks the fact that the government is not intended to generate profit. Furthermore, the potential for chaos and disruption was not considered. Governments, by their nature as service-oriented entities, cannot be evaluated in the same manner as businesses. Governments are labor-intensive organizations with diverse objectives that do not include profit-making. While efficiency is important, generating profit for its citizens is not within the government's remit. However, those currently in positions of authority may derive financial benefits.

Is it any wonder that Elon Musk and his DOGE group are using tools from their technology backgrounds to look at the financial costs of various government functions and, given the task of saving money, do what any businessman would do to cut costs, they cut the staff. They are working to eliminate the most expensive thing on the balance sheets of most government entities, people.

That would be all well and good if certain positions were analyzed and found to be unnecessary. Their approach has been more capricious and arbitrary. Across-the-board cuts to agencies by eliminating new hires, forced retirement, and eventually mass firings. Little to no concern has been given, beyond hindsight, to the importance of the individuals being uprooted.

The attitude seems to be to take the lazy way, don’t analyze, just cut them all and see if anyone complains. If there is a public outcry, then say, whoops, never mind. When aviation safety is compromised and planes begin to crash, when hospitals begin to close and people are left without alternatives, when there are new outbreaks of bird flu and measles, and when national parks fall into disrepair, only then will you try to reverse course and try to rehire. Certainly, the very best of us would jump at the chance to work for a government where your job security is dependent on the political whims of an autistic billionaire.

Sadly, many of the services being cut may not be missed until it is too late. Trump’s first term in office saw him cut the $200 million pandemic early warning program which was followed by the coronavirus pandemic. That pandemic ended up costing more than $16 trillion, or 90% of the annual GDP of the United States. We will never know what, if any, of these losses could have been prevented had that agency not been cut. How many of the 1,219,487 US citizens who died from the virus might have been saved we will never know.

For the record, that project was called Predict and it was run by the US Agency for International Development. Yes, that is the same agency that is under fire again from the Trump administration. Trump has given Elon Musk a really big hammer and everything Elon sees “needs a pounding.”