Lots of stuff there is far from being clear to the author himself. I will quote a small part of the article which I believe I have a different interpretation.
(...) The purest expression of this system in modern times took shape in Russia in the 1990s, when a few businessmen bought up control of the national economy during its chaotic transition to capitalism. The Russian term for their oligarchy is semibankirshchina—the reign of the seven bankers.
The most powerful among them, Boris Berezovsky, used his media assets to help Putin win his first election in 2000, and he expected the new President to share the spoils of power. Instead, the two of them began to feud. Soon the Russian state forced Berezovsky into exile and seized his television network. Broke and lonely, the oligarch died in 2013 at his mansion in the English countryside. Authorities ruled it a suicide. To this day, his former media channel carries the Kremlin’s message.
One of Berezovsky’s close associates, Alex Goldfarb, now lives in New Jersey, and he has followed the tandem of Musk and Trump with a mix of familiarity and dread. “There seems to be an oligarchy forming here as well,” he says. “Under Putin in the early years, we had the oligarchs fighting the state with everything they had,” says Goldfarb. “Here it seems we have two oligarchs, Musk and Trump, working together to take over the state.”
The outcome may depend on the way this new duopoly treats the institutions they will soon control. If the aim is to sharpen them into leaner and more effective tools of governance, the public could benefit from the remaking of a system that has long been weighed down with bureaucratic flab. But Trump has also used those tools the way Putin has done in Russia—to benefit his friends and sideline his enemies.
Musk has a lot to gain from that arrangement. As long as he sticks to the role of First Buddy, he might expect an easy ride from the regulators Trump appoints throughout the government. His clearest path to Mars could thus run straight through the Oval Office. But apart from watching the spectacle of his success, what benefit will trickle down to everyday Americans?
The institutions that give us health care, keep our water clean, and educate our kids are not meant to be run like businesses. They are not built to make a profit, but that does not make them any less valuable, especially for the citizens who can least afford to pay. If those institutions get culled amid the Muskian push for efficiency, the hardship will not be temporary for those who rely on government support. For them, the pain could be devastating, and none of Musk’s promises of an interplanetary future will help them get through the problems of today.
—With reporting by Eric Cortellessa/Lancaster and Leslie Dickstein/New York
Sure, lots of fun ahead.
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