Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk recently criticized the over-encumbering regulatory environment in the United States, which stifles innovation. The multi-company CEO explained how overbearing rules imposed by the government have made “large projects essentially illegal” throughout the West.
During a recent video call, Musk explained the state of “regulatory gridlock” that hinders large-scale investment infrastructure from being executed effectively. He cited roughly $7 billion spent on a high-speed rail in California that has produced virtually nothing.
“You know, in the West, I think we have created regulatory gridlock where just almost everything is illegal. This is why they can’t build a high-speed rail in California. They spent $7 billion and there’s 1600 ft section, it’s all they have to show for it and it doesn’t even have rails on it. It’s really too absurd for parity,” Musk said, illustrating the absurdity of the regulatory environment.
The Tesla founder continued lamenting the hindrance from regulations. “Large projects are essentially illegal in California and much of Europe and other countries. So there has to be some garbage collection process for removing rules and regulations in order for society to function and not to get hardening of the arteries to the point where you can’t do anything,” he continued.
Users on X commented under the video, sharing their own anecdotes toward regulations. “I know an engineer who worked on a pilotless cargo drone project. The FAA initially required it to be equipped with a seatbelt in order to be approved to fly. Even though there was no seat,” one person said.
Others offered varying solutions to how this problem could be addressed. “My position remains unchanged. Cut each cabinet department by 10-15% per year for a minimum of 4 years. This government is too damn big to function anywhere near efficiently,” one user commented.
Another user weighed in, “Go to China. See what they accomplish. Monorail for Olympics? Done. Bridge to Macau? Done. We can’t even get a reservoir built to hold our runoff in California. Gridlock. Sorry, he’s correct. Yes. Pay the man.” Watch Musk’s comments below:
One person opined, “This would fix it: 1) All laws and rules must be legislated. Agencies cannot create rules. They can propose them for the legislature. 2) All laws and rules must come with expiration dates that are less than the shortest term of the legislative body members proposing and passing them.”
Being an entrepreneurial risk-taker who pushes the bounds of what is possible, Musk has long criticized regulations that halt the progress of society. Bloomberg Quicktake shared another video of Musk speaking about the failed California high-speed rail.
Musk said, “Year after year, there are more laws, regulations passed and more regulatory bodies created, eventually everything will be illegal. And that’s why you see the California High Speed Rail has made a tiny section of that doesn’t even have rail on it. And for, I don’t know, several billion dollars, because everything’s at this point, California has made almost everything illegal, so you can’t make progress. Most poignant example that I can think of that happened this week was this, the sad picture of the California High Speed Rail, which is, you know, it’s just billions. of dollars spent for practically nothing. But it’ll only get worse, year after year. So, we must have a regulatory sort of clearinghouse, garbage collection process. This is essential, or civilization comes grinding to a halt.”
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