Tech's Highly Paid Versions Of Homer Simpson Won't Be Missed

As head of Twitter, Elon Musk is running a real-time public experiment. Most notable are his efforts to transform the social media platform, which has more influence over the national media and political conversation than any of its rivals, into a freer and more transparent forum. In handing over a trove of internal files to a number of journalists, he also revealed Twitter's close relationship with Musk and government censors, including the FBI.

However, it could be argued that the censorship controversy is secondary to the long-term impact of Musk's experiment. Musk's willingness to clean house (reportedly firing more than two-thirds of former Twitter employees) could send waves across Silicon Valley, driving a dagger into the heart of leftist ideology in America's powerful tech sector.

This is because the simple performance of the application itself has not suffered. The discussions were mostly about who could tweet, seeing that as the only downside to using it. This raises a very serious question that many would like to avoid. What else to do but respond to emails from FBI agents and demand a tag for two out of three Twitter employees with an estimated average salary of $150,000 a year?

Musk's tenure and decisions as CEO are a direct challenge to an entire class of high-paid managers whose six-figure (and sometimes seven-figure) jobs are looking fatter and scattered as the tech sector grows.

Perhaps the Achilles heel of our ruling class is a lack of wisdom or culture, or even a deep devotion to religion, but most of them are, after all, paid versions of Homer Simpson. The slide of universities into institutions of ideological accreditation has had enormous cultural value, yes, but it has also had a highly elastic effect on meritocracy and performance that has eclipsed politics. By the numbers, the Ivy League title still creates a "good life" for those who win it, but what most of them create for the bottom line is more of an open question.

Joel Roth, Twitter's former head of trust and security and a frequent correspondent for the FBI, is a near-perfect representative of a class that could in all seriousness be called a highly successful capitalist version of the Soviet commissars. In other words, hall of fame observers are well paid.

Roth, again, is the best example of a very popular phenomenon on Twitter. His LinkedIn profile offers some suggestions for business qualifications that go beyond ideology: his "research and education focuses on understanding how policy, governance and code affect the types of companies that can create a safe and secure Internet." protected and how "the choices of developers, designers and legislators can result in the systematic displacement of certain types of identities and communities into the digital margins". In short, his resume reads like a woke scientist or activist, not an engineer.

Roth alone is one of the most successful figures in his dynasty, but there are hundreds of thousands of Joel Roths who are firmly entrenched in the middle management ranks of the Fortune 500, earning six figures instead of seven. Their wages account for quite a large amount of budget costs.

Perhaps for the same reason that James Burnham has become the prophet of our time, our modern managerial economy seems unparalleled in the production of what anthropologist David Graeber calls "ox labor." Increasingly, the rationale for these jobs, especially in HR and diversity departments, is political rather than economic. As with ESG fraud, the supposed profits meant to please people and money have little economic explanation. Executives, perhaps more than most of us, constantly hear about the supposed performance benefits of diversity, inclusion and social responsibility, and why they should be hiring graduates of the new diversity, equity and social responsibility graduate program.

But Musk's presence on Twitter can disprove these clichéd explanations with a cold, stark, and unintelligent example. literate and engaged in humpback whales (and in industry), the core composition consists mainly of men. Your personnel costs will decrease and your business will become profitable.

Charles Heywood, editor of The Worthy House magazine with experience in law and business, made some calculations based on Twitter's overall finances and staff cuts. "Musk changed Twitter's net [profit] margin overnight from negative 20% to nearly 28%, more than Apple or Google," he tweeted. Heywood's analysis argues that advertisers can't be banned forever, but even though the decline in ad sales changes profits due to external pressures (such as pressure from left-wing activists), it still shows that the group is doing well paid advertisers are under control; do not correspond to the actual product specifications. Additionally, Haywood's accounts do not include hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars in popular TikTok perks that have been offered to tech companies to attract the right "profile" of employees; Musk's famous Twitter headquarters has canceled $400 lunches.

While Musk is making good on his promise in Twitter polls to step back from day-to-day operations and terms-of-service battles if Twitter doesn't return to its previous staffing levels, the example of a major tech company is running relatively smoothly. . at least in the technical part, leaving a third of the costs for wages.

It will only become more attractive as the tech boom of the past few years looks set to fizzle out as the country teeters on the brink of recession. Some of the giants of the industry, such as Amazon and Meta, have faced a large number of layoffs in recent months. According to some estimates, more than 120,000 employees were laid off in this sector in the last three months alone. Musk's tightening of the franchise is also intriguing to other CEOs looking to cut costs. Meta (aka Facebook) just canceled the $200 salary of a longtime Lyft employee.

The elites have largely abandoned their ideologically awakened movement because we are a fabulously wealthy country, but that wealth has given the power agent class the false impression that their actions have no consequences and that they will move forward. forever They see this extraordinary boom, caused mainly by the efficient divisions of technology companies, as the mainframe of the world and believe that they can continue to make big money forever, simply by being among those who deserve ideological trust.

But speculating on hierarchies of the oppressed and punishing people for using the latest modernized language of political correctness does not add a dime to the true wealth of nations. A significant part of GDP, although difficult to estimate, is ideologically difficult. a fake economy that makes real billions for whoever holds the keys to its temple.

If anything, given the opposing forces, Twitter 2.0 may show that Musk's experiment could have lasting consequences not only for freedom of expression in the digital public sphere, but also for the structural roadmap to success and the power that comes with it. :

Inez Filcher-Stepman is a senior policy analyst at the Independent Women's Forum and host of the High Noon podcast .

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