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Comment by ai_critic | Hacker News Reader

Like the fellow or not, outright lies like "When Musk’s plans inevitably fail" undercut any credibility this creed might have.

Tesla cars, the new Optimus thing, SpaceX, xAI...like, the dude has a track record of making things happen.

Be upset about the concentration of wealth, be upset about a misunderstanding of public policy and misalignment of values in the execution of DOGE, be upset about petty manchild antics on Twitter--but for fuck's sake, can we please stop ignoring the evidence (good and bad) in front of our own eyes?

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His wood chipper tactics led directly to thousands of deaths from disease and starvation in the third world: https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-shutdown-has-led-to-hund...

There are so many things this study assumes that you cant possibly think its remotely accurate. These estimates rely on mathematical modeling to estimate this which we should know from covid that these models are often flawed. This specific study referenced from the link you provided is estimating a projection of a 15% increase in all cause mortality by 2030. Dividing total funding by "average per-child treatment cost" to estimate death ignores the fact that not all aid reaches its target. In fact as we've seen with other "aid" programs (cough cough Ukraine) much of that money is disappears due to fraud and corruption. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to look at the countries this aid was going to and know that they are rampant with corruption.

Secondly, what is missed is that while USAID was shut down, many of the programs were moved to the US State Department with a blanket waiver for all life saving humanitarian aid.https://www.state.gov/emergency-humanitarian-waiver-to-forei...

> The Lancet study claims USAID programs saved more than 90 million lives during this period. In other words, USAID was allegedly responsible for the entire global improvement in mortality, plus another 11 million lives.

https://reason.com/2025/07/24/did-usaid-really-save-90-milli...

https://depts.washington.edu/globalhealthjustice/what-is-the...

You can find articles[1][2] with direct reporting on the deaths. I don't know what the actual numbers are, but it's a verifiable fact that many people have died because previously-available health care, medicine, food, etc. were suddenly (and illegally) cut off by DOGE. There's a correct way to taper a life-saving program instead of yanking out the IV and washing your hands of the consequences, but that imbecile Musk either didn't care to learn or simply didn't care. Minimizing human suffering was not even a consideration.

[1]: https://archive.ph/20250629012329/https://www.nytimes.com/20...

[2]: https://www.propublica.org/article/kenya-trump-usaid-world-f...

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