Summary

Elon Musk called to “delete” the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which has returned nearly $20 billion to Americans since its creation after the 2008 financial crisis.

Critics, including Public Citizen, argue Musk’s stance is driven by conflicts of interest, as the CFPB recently finalized a rule to supervise large tech companies offering digital payment services—a business Musk appears poised to enter.

“In short, Musk is calling for elimination of the consumer protection regulator over a business line he seems poised to enter… This is systemic corruption at a grand and intolerable scale,” one advocate said.

The CFPB has long faced opposition from corporations and conservatives but is praised for combating financial abuses and protecting consumers.

  • @CharlesDarwin
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    125 hours ago

    People like Musk cannot have the threat of a good example.

  • @TheDemonBuer
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    328 hours ago

    Musk has publicly praised the book, ‘The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World,’ that came out last year. The book, as you would assume, advocates for essentially unregulated, free market capitalism. I think Musk, and others like him, see a second Trump term as an opportunity to try and bring about the capitalist utopia that the book envisions.

    If you’re a capitalism supporter, this is likely good news. And long may the free market reign. If you’re a socialist, well, you better be organizing workers like there’s no tomorrow.

    • @Blue_Morpho
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      257 hours ago

      If you’re a capitalism supporter, this is likely good news.

      It’s not good news for intelligent capitalists either. The current systems are in place because real capitalists, starting with Adam Smith in 1776, know that regulations are critical for the success of capitalism.

      People who champion deregulation are always looking to destroy the free market for their personal profit.

      • @TheDemonBuer
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        106 hours ago

        Unfortunate that intelligence doesn’t seem to be a requirement for having success under capitalism.

    • @[email protected]
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      14 hours ago

      I very much doubt that tariffs and pissing off basically everyone outside if the US will help a goal of a global free market.

      • @TheDemonBuer
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        23 hours ago

        Well, they have to balance their commitment to global free markets with their desire to destroy countries run by Communists, or any country that isn’t sufficiently Western and liberal in their political or economic philosophies. China is especially problematic, because they’ve accounted for so much of the global growth that’s occurred over the last several decades, but they are ultimately run by Communists, and they are certainly not liberal or Western enough.

    • @pivot_root
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      77 hours ago

      “Capitalist utopia” is a bit of an oxymoron, no?

      • @[email protected]
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        7 hours ago

        Not if you’re a selfish capitalist billionaire who doesn’t give two shits about other people. But for everyone else, yes.

      • @TheDemonBuer
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        27 hours ago

        “Capitalist utopia” is a bit of an oxymoron, no?

        I think it is.

    • Todd Bonzalez
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      46 hours ago

      If you’re a capitalism supporter, this is likely good news. And long may the free market reign. If you’re a socialist, well, you better be organizing workers like there’s no tomorrow.

      I think it’s bad news regardless of what you’re rooting for. Socialists are going to get exploited and harmed just as much as the capitalists are. The only difference is that the capitalists will say “daddy please” as the boot comes down.

      The only winners here are going to be the ruling class.

      • @TheDemonBuer
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        -37 hours ago

        Biden is a neoliberal technocrat, a group that is becoming less and less relevant with every passing year.