As much of Los Angeles burned to the ground this past week, the world’s richest man stepped forward again to show that government’s failure to protect its citizens can be resolved by the entrepreneurship of the private sector.
With little fanfare, Elon Musk, the chief executive of tech companies including Space X, Tesla X and the satellite communications wonder Starlink, personally delivered Starlink communications systems and Cybertrucks to rescue groups and first responders battling wildfires throughout Los Angeles County.
Credit: HANDOUT
Credit: HANDOUT
Without telecommunications, search, rescue and firefighting would be impossible. More than two dozen people have already lost their lives to these wildfires. It would have been easier to contain or prevent these catastrophic infernos if state and local officials had planned appropriately.
Instead, Musk stepped in as humanitarian to support volunteers and others on the ground with Starlink — just as he did with hurricanes Helene and Milton that hit the South very hard last fall.
In Western North Carolina, residents and private search and rescue teams rejoiced when Starlink arrived, frustrated by slow response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Starlink enabled them to contact family members and give search and rescue volunteers internet service to coordinate sweeps of riverbanks and mountains of debris, looking for survivors.
Musk is emblematic of what the private sector can do when government fails its citizens — either in slow response time to a tragedy like a hurricane, fire or other natural disaster or in how to prevent one. Even the uber wealthy of Los Angeles knew this and used private firefighting teams to protect their estates, sometimes using water from their swimming pools.
We in the Georgia Legislature knew the private sector could do a better job of meeting our citizens’ needs 20 years ago when Republicans took control for the first time since Reconstruction. As is seen in California, too often bureaucrats cave to special interest groups and fad ideas, such as extremist climate change theories that throw common sense out the window when it comes to public planning. Even the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., blamed the Sierra Club when it blocked her federal efforts to thin national forests in California and other areas of the west so there would be less debris fueling fires, especially near urban areas.
When we created the cities of Johns Creek, Sandy Springs, Roswell, Dunwoody and others, the Georgia Legislature for the first time allowed government to be contracted with private management so they would be run like a business.
Musk is often criticized because he has become a confidant of President-elect Donald Trump. Yet Trump should be commended for recognizing Musk’s extraordinary talents. He sees that Musk knows how to attack an issue and manage it like a any successful business executive.
Take, for example, his approach to outer space. Musk now regularly launches rockets that can return to Earth. Musk’s companies are sending satellites into orbit at dizzying speed, something sadly NASA nor our government could do because of the slow pace and size of the bureaucracy of the federal government. Musk has also been called in to save astronauts stranded at the International Space Station because NASA can’t do the job.
After Musk purchased Twitter and renamed it X, he was nominated for a Nobel Prize by a Norwegian member of parliament for his global commitment to free speech and competition with corporate media.
But Musk’s recent actions to help victims of hurricanes, fires and other disasters is truly emblematic of the private sector solving the problems either caused by government or that government can’t quickly resolve.
Another example, when Flint, Michigan, underwent a federal emergency in because of lead contamination in its drinking water, Musk stepped up to provide a filtration system and filters for the city’s public schools while public officials took years to rebuild the water infrastructure.
Musk is a man who knows how to harness the ingenuity and warp speed of business to solve our nation’s critical challenges. We all will soon be learning more from Musk that solutions are not found in another government department, agency, committee or law.
The solution is always found in each one of us thinking outside the box, coming to the rescue of each other to create a better way of life. Musk deserves to be commended on what he has done and will do to help Americans in need.
Mark Burkhalter, a former speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, is an international business owner and real estate developer. He was nominated by President Donald Trump in his first term to be ambassador to Norway.
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