Eliminating waste in government, and transparency in what government is throwing money at is asinine? Musk simply applied the same techniques which have created several of the most exciting and innovative companies of the century.
The natural progression of government has rendered NASA unable to launch men into space.
The simple fact that you think that government and companies are the same thing is sign enough that you can't have that discussion.
A company is a dynamic system that constantly trims the fat and drops inefficiency. Inefficiency is also people who need to be dropped. It's goals are short term, and are one thing - money.
A government - strangely enough - also has money as its goals, but they are long term. I has no place to drop anything or anybody, as it's the final, lowest net. It has to catch everybody. It's goal is to keep everyone - in the long term - alive, functional and healthy.
Not for any idealistic reason, mind you. The government doesn't love you. It just wants you and your loved ones alive, functional and healthy because as long as you are alive, functional and healthy - you'll pay taxes. You'll take care of your family so someone else doesn't have to.
Because if you kick the bucket - your kids will have to be taken care of by someone else. They'll have less chances to graduate. They'll likely get crappier, lower paid jobs. They'll thus output less product, and pay less taxes. Bringing a long term compounded loss for the government.
A business doesn't have long term goals at that scale. And many fields are not prone to be ran like a business anyway. For example, a health insurance's long term goal is not to keep you healthy. It's to get your money while you're healthy, and to drop you to croak quick once you get sick. There is no optimization of that model. It's a sweet, sweet business model, but not for the insured. Only for the insurer.
That any government can benefit from optimization is a given, but barging in, destroying, ripping off, destroying lives, and treating people who signed up to serve YOU as the ennemy, humiliating them, painting them as the ennemy and cheering when they get yelled at and fired by 18 years olds is not optimization - it's showing off, plain and simple. It's simulating some action and throwing shiny sparkles in your hungry eyes, while the stealing is going at unseen scale behind your back.
