Introducing my new reality show
“Billionaires Solve Problems the Government Solved a Long Time Ago and Then Explain How Much More Efficient They Are Than Government."
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I have an idea for a reality show. It’s called “Billionaires Solve Problems the Government Solved a Long Time Ago and Then Explain How Much More Efficient They Are Than Government.” I may ask Richard Branson to produce.
In the pilot episode, Elon Musk will “invent” something he calls the Digital Method of Verification. He will pioneer a whole system whereby people can take a driving test and receive a plastic card that I’m told Musk will refer to as a “license” and thus gain permission to drive on public roads.
In the second episode, Jeff Bezos will “innovate” a new kind of bookstore that buys books but then gives them out to people for free, so long as those books are returned. He will fund it with some of the money he doesn’t pay in taxes. He will call it the Lending Interesting Books to Raise Aspirations for Reading Youths, or LIBRARY, program.
In the third episode, Uber will “conceive” of a new system for moving large numbers of people at more affordable prices. It will offer rides in considerably larger vehicles, which, instead of picking you up exactly where you want, will stop at fixed locations around the city at particular times. In a shift, the company will also allow workers to unionize. Customers will recognize large boxy vehicles painted with the words “Bold Universal Solution,” or BUS.
In future episodes, Bill Gates will invent a new kind of school that everyone can go to for free, and Warren Buffett will devise a system whereby young people put money into a program that sends them a steady income when they’re old. Please tune in!
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Lending Interesting Books to Raise Aspirations for Reading Youths: mind blown! All jokes aside, in "Summer of Soul" (the awesome documentary film about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival that everyone should watch) there is a great moment where people in the audience, Harlem residents still reckoning with the fallout of 1968--and of being Black in America generally--are asked to react to the moon landing. One guy says something like, given all the poverty and social issues in Harlem and all over the country, "nevermind the moon." That's just be echoing in my head so much lately.
I cannot gin up any interest in these ridiculous people and their massive egos and power. It's simply grotesque.