What’s 2+2 on a billionaire’s calculator?

The magic of making trillions disappear with a tweet

Mary Carter
4 min readNov 26, 2024

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There’s something deeply ironic about a man who built his fortune on numbers trying to convince us with math that doesn’t add up.

I watch with morbid fascination the grandiose promises of Elon Musk about balancing the American budget.

It’s like promising to empty the ocean with a teaspoon — technically possible, but fundamentally absurd.

Let’s dissect this numerical fallacy with the coldness it deserves. The DOGE (the irony of using a meme as a name for something supposedly serious doesn’t escape me) promises to eliminate a deficit of almost 2 trillion dollars.

To contextualize this is more money than the GDP of 185 countries in the world. We’re not talking about loose change lost between couch cushions.

Mathematics is relentless precisely because it doesn’t care about your wealth, status, or number of followers on X. Let’s look at the non-negotiable numbers:

  • Social Security: 1.45 trillion
  • Defense and Veterans: 1.1 trillion
  • Medicare: 900 billion
  • Debt interest: 900 billion

Total: 4.35 trillion dollars in practically untouchable expenses.

What Musk proposes is equivalent to trying to lose 100 pounds by just cutting your nails. The math doesn’t just not add up — it openly laughs…

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Mary Carter
Mary Carter

Written by Mary Carter

I share candid reflections on love, sex, and life's ups and downs, no holds barred and no taboos.