John M. Rodgers: Haphazard mass firings will do immeasurable damage to services Americans of all political stripes rely on

To The Daily Sun,

The richest man in the world is issuing pink slips to U.S. government workers faster than his government-funded SpaceX rockets shoot into space.

Elon Musk, an unelected, South African-born, Canadian citizen and founder (as a Democrat and climate change advocate) of an electric car company that has immensely benefited from billions in U.S. government funding now gleefully fires federal workers. Musk has been fighting unions and firing people in Silicon Valley for years. He gutted Twitter in 2022, firing thousands of workers. Since then company value has dropped some 75% or $30 billion.

But that’s Twitter and Silicon Valley where they love to move fast, break things. Start-ups fail every day. Fail often, they like to say. So why not let Musk take a sledgehammer to our federal government? Just clean house; roll lots of heads. Like those wasters, abusers and “lunatics” in the NIH, VA, FDA, FAA, USDA, Department of Education, CDC, Department of Homeland Security, NPS, CFPB, et al.

Yes, sure, there must be areas to save money, improve efficiency. That’s what audits are for. Musk bulldozing the critical, complicated infrastructure of our fragile Republic is like burning down a house to get rid of termites.

These haphazard mass firings will do immeasurable damage to services Americans of all political stripes rely on. And pay attention to probationary workers being fired who represent the next generation of our federal workforce. Talk about sabotaging the future. Do readers care about cancer research, food inspection, airline safety, clean waterways, veteran care, access to national parks?

Unsurprisingly, fallout stories have started to emerge and countless more will follow as we watch this siege unfold across the nation and world. It won’t matter who readers voted for in the end when the consequences of an unelected erratic billionaire taking a sledgehammer to our intricate and fragile Republic hit home.

John M. Rodgers

Moultonborough