The big argument for why capitalism and unregulated markets, and therefore billionaires with far too many resources and power, are a good thing for civilization is that they are titans of industry that improve everybody’s lives. A rising tide floats all boats! Job creators! It’s the argument the Republican Party has been making for years every time they cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans and the overwhelming majority of us get even less out of an “improving” economy.
When Elon Musk farted out the idea that he would buy social media platform Twitter, it was news because Musk is one of (if not the) richest persons in the world. He proceeded to show the world how pedestrian rich kids who luck into billions are by fumbling around with a wishy-washy financial plan and failed lawsuit that resulted in some of his private digital messages being leaked to the public—messages that illustrated how pedestrian Elon Musk and his wealthy and influential friends are writ large.
The Washington Post is reporting that Musk has some ideas on how he’s going to make Twitter more free-speecherific, and they include firing most everybody who works there! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
RELATED STORY: Time magazine names Elon Musk ‘Person Of The Year,’ the internet says nope
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Musk takes his classic guy who is a “free speech warrior” but fires employees for speech he doesn’t approve of, and applies it to being a billionaire “job creator.” According to the Post, Musk has been looking for “prospective investors,” and in so doing is offering up his vision of the near future for the company that as of right now has around 7,500 employees. First order of business? Cut that number down to 2,000 employees. No, you read that right, Musk told prospective investors that he would like to fire almost three-quarters of the Twitter workforce.
Now, in Musk’s defense, the current management’s plan was to whittle away one-quarter of the workforce. According to the Post, this explains why Twitter’s leadership was all open-arms when Musk made his $44 billion, way-overvalued bid for the company.
The impact of such layoffs would likely be immediately felt by millions of users, said Edwin Chen, a data scientist formerly in charge of Twitter’s spam and health metrics and now CEO of the content-moderation start-up Surge AI. He said that while he believed Twitter was overstaffed, the cuts Musk proposed were “unimaginable” and would put Twitter’s users at risk of hacks and exposure to offensive material such as child pornography.
Freedom! Last week, Business Insider interviewed one of Musk’s venture capital backers, Andrea Walne of Manhattan Venture Partners—a firm that originally agreed to help fund $7 billion of Musk’s $44 billion bid for Twitter. "We talked to the other investors, everyone's trying to get out of it, no one thinks the company should be valued at $44 billion,” Walne revealed. In fact, Mr. Genius Richest Man In The World offered up $44 billion for a company that his backers are now saying is maybe worth one-quarter of that.
And while the deal is expected to be finalized by next Friday, exactly who Musk’s been able to rope into investing in the social media platform, with his promises of firing everybody and turning moderation into a skeleton crew, remains to be seen. For example, the Post writes, “Founders Fund, the Silicon Valley venture firm founded by billionaire Republican donor Peter Thiel, also said no.”
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RELATED STORY: Elon Musk employees fired for speech Elon Musk doesn’t like
