Imagine Elon Musk's ideal government. Rather than a complex, devolvedWhen power is given from a higher level to a lower level. The term is often used when news powers are given to regional leaders. and bureaucratic system of politicians and civil servants, his government might be managed by a tight-knit council of 10 billionaire CEOs.

Each CEO might run their own private sector department like a start-up, with citizens buying "subscriptions" to what we now see as basic rights and functions of government: infrastructure, energy, defence, healthcare, education, and more.

Perhaps the Department of Transportation would be run by a fleet of self-driving Teslas. Instead of going to school, you might pay a Patreon-style subscription fee to a virtual reality classroom run by an AI tutor. Public parks might only be accessible via geo-fenced NFTs (non-fungible tokens) which customers can trade or buy for exclusive access to nature.

But why should we care? After all, the SpaceX and Tesla founder is not an elected US official; born in South Africa, he cannot even run for president. But he did invest almost £100m into President-elect Donald Trump's campaign, enthusiastically endorsing him in a number of public forums.

It appears to have been a good strategy, with the incoming Trump administration already richly rewarding loyalists. This week, Trump announced that Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy are to run a new 'Department of Government Efficiency.'

The Department - named DOGE for its initials and after Musk's favourite cryptocurrency Dogecoin and a viral 2013 meme of a Shiba Inu dog - will "dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations [and] cut wasteful expenditures", says Trump.

Musk has promised a whopping $2trnA trillion (trn) means one million million. in cuts - around one-third of all federal spending. He has been vocal about his desire to shave government influence down to a minimum. Journalists have dubbed Trump and Musk's partnership "the American oligarchy".

Furthermore, many doubt Musk is the man for the job. Musk cut staff at X, formerly Twitter, by 80% after he purchased the site in 2022. But if Trump is looking to capitalise on this frugality, it does not bode well for the US economy: X has seen steep revenue declines in recent years.

And some say that despite Musk's posturing, none of his inventions could have made it big without extensive government support. Tesla has received more than £2.2bnA billion (bn) means one thousand million. in state and federal government subsidies in less than two decades.

Have governments become useless?

Yes: Governments are lumbering, inefficient tools of overregulation which prevent economic efficiency and poorly distribute resources. We need to shave down our bureaucracy drastically to move into the modern world.

No: None of this is about efficiency or preventing bureaucracy. Realistically, Trump and Musk know that they will have more power if they hack off the limbs of our democratic institutions.

Or... It is absurd to believe that $2trn could be cut from government spending at all. Economists have repeatedly affirmed that it is simply not possible, and would send the economy into complete turmoil - something Trump cannot and will not risk his legacy over.