Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently accepted an interview with American conservative commentator Ben Shapiro during his visit to Poland and discussed a series of topics such as DEI, aliens, SpaceX and corporate regulation. During the interview, Shapiro asked Musk what was the biggest obstacle facing Western companies.
The tech billionaire responded immediately: "Over-regulation."
"Regulations are important," Musk said. "But regulators and legislators create new rules and regulations every year. So, every year there's another layer of regulation."
He added: "How have they dealt with it in the past? Well, if it had been in the past, there would have been a war. The war would have washed away the old rules and regulations. It absolutely needs a war to change."
However, Musk concluded by saying that it would be better to have a "cleaning up" process of laws and regulations that would not require war. "Basically, a garbage collection of laws and regulations."
This isn't the first time Musk has expressed his dissatisfaction with the U.S. government's regulatory system. Last October, Musk backed SpaceX Vice President William Gerstenmaier, who called for reforms to the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) space division.
"The pace of U.S. regulation has to match the pace of U.S. innovation. We are falling behind," Gerstenmaier said, adding, "It's a shame that when our hardware is ready to take off, we're not able to take off because of regulations or scrutiny."