For the sake of national security, it’s time for the U.S. to nationalize #SpaceX. We paid for it, anyway. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/19/us/politics/elon-musk-white-house-pentagon.html?unlocked_article_code=1._0w.Ddmk.XZllRINCvCbT&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
@deanbetz if we paid for it we would already have it.
SpaceX is not nationalized today because the country didn't pay for it.
Instead, the nation paid for NASA, whose program didn't produce the successes that SpaceX did.
Which in the end is just another reason we should probably not nationalize SpaceX.
@volkris We paid for all of the research that SpaceX leverages; we’re heavily subsidizing its bottom line with government flights. It’s too important of a national resources to be left in the hands of an unhinged antisemite.
@deanbetz well that's simply not true.
SpaceX has done an awful lot of research on its own.
Not that it matters. Paying for research does not amount to paying for a company.
Anyway, I agree with you about being skeptical of any subsidies, so I think we should stop re-electing the representatives who promote such subsidies. But that's just where our country is right now, and it's a separate question from nationalizing.
The national bureaucracies have let us down, which is why we are in this position in the first place. I see no reason to think that we'd be better off spreading that politicized and failed bureaucracy to SpaceX.
@volkris I would not advocate folding SoaceX into NASA. Run it was a public-benefit corporation with a grown-up in charge.
@deanbetz but why would the US government that has done such a bang-up job with NASA be expected to do any better with SpaceX, regardless of the legal technicalities of its structure?
Your proposal reminds me of how the USPS is set up, and lord knows people have some pretty big complaints about that.
@deanbetz yeah but the people are the ones who elected this crappy government 🙂
I'm half joking but really I'm still looking for some reason to think that the organization would be a success and not a wart.
Right now we have seen SpaceX make tremendous advancements, and when you're proposing to make such a major change as to nationalize it, I'm looking for reason to think those advancements would continue and not be stymied as just another governmental bureaucratic mess.
Yes, absolutely government has some successes, and it also has some failures, but I want to see some reason to believe this would be the former and not the latter, with us having given up this very successful organization.
@volkris Try the idea on. Walk it around a little. There’s too much risk to let Musk call the shots.
@deanbetz but again, you're not giving me anything to work with here 🙂
I really don't give a damn about Musk.
But I see no reason to think that SpaceX would remain as successful if it was nationalized and subjected to US ownership.
And I keep asking for it, but you haven't said anything to make me think it would be.
@volkris You’re a hard sell. That’s cool. Like I ask, try it on.
@deanbetz ha, I did, and I just see SpaceX falling down into a political rabbit hole leaving it mimicking NASA and the Postal Service, with progress slowing to a crawl.
I've worked with lots of government agencies and contractors and different sorts of governmental organizations over the years, and I am so glad SpaceX is not dealing with what I see in them, the waste, the politics, the lack of accountability, the waste (it bore repeating :) ).
So when I try on the idea of nationalizing SpaceX I just throw up my hands and say so much for that, now it will be just another paperwork mill.
@volkris It could be owned by the people, but run independently. The status quo is not acceptable.