school in white-run South Africa in a Rolls Royce — lit into the regulations that created and protect the American middle class and our democracy :
“ Regulations , basically , should be default gone . Not default there , default gone . And if it turns out that we missed the mark on a regulation , we can always add it back in .”
In a childlike echo of Ayn Rand , Musk added :
“ These regulations are added willy-nilly all the time . So , we ’ ve just got to do a wholesale , spring cleaning of regulation and get the government off the backs of everyday Americans so people can get things done . … If the government has millions of regulations holding everyone back , well , it ’ s not freedom . We ’ ve got to restore freedom .”
Both capitalism and democracy could be likened to a game — say , football — ideally played to benefit the largest number of people by creating and guaranteeing “ Life , Liberty , and the pursuit of Happiness .”
But imagine if the NFL were to suspend their regulations just before this Sunday ’ s Super Bowl . And the Chiefs , like most elected Democrats , chose to continue playing by the old regulations , but the Eagles started gut-punching , facemask-pulling , and even threw five extra players onto the field .
The only team that would ever win would be the one most willing to play dirty or buy off the refs . And , increasingly , that ’ s where we are today , both with our democracy and our economy .
We know this is crazy : Every state in the union has put into place an agency to regulate insurance companies because that very industry has a long , horrible history of ripping people off and refusing to pay claims unless the power of the state is invoked against them .
The Trial Lawyer 73