Elon Musk is the subsidy king
I hate this country’s people with a passion
Ah the old Atlas Shrugged fallacy of the single brilliant entrepreneur inventor. The idea that some inventor sits in a lab and comes up with some new idea totally detached from other invention. It’s a complete myth and is as detached from reality as much as everything else Rand wrote about.
Innovation builds on innovation, and builds on the work of countless other people. In this example here, Musk is able to do what he does in space only because of the hundreds of billions spent by multiple governments on space exploration and other related technologies.
Not to mention Musk can only put things into space that generate ROI. None of it advances human knowledge or allows us to significantly expand our technological capabilities. The capitalist economies all pretty much abandoning government support for innovation and handing it off to the private sector is why I genuinely think we’re moving backwards when it comes to tech and innovation.
💯 on the innovation stuff. I think the current stage of capitalism and VC funding has heightened this. Large corporations are often effectively outsourcing R&D to startups who exist solely to be acquired - not to actually become viable businesses in themselves. In turn it incentivises short term thinking for innovation, as startups have to move quickly to gain and keep funding, producing snake oil to keep the gravy train going. Of course there are exceptions to this, but it seems like a growing trend - larger companies externalising risk and costs from their bottom line, and getting a PR splash when they buy a “hot” startup.
I agree with @Apompliano completely: we need as many entrepreneurs as we can get. In fact, I would go so far as to say that we need absolutely all able people on the face of this planet to be innovators. To this end, I suggest we distribute resources among everyone equitably. It’s the only way to ensure they get the opportunity they need to be entrepreneurial innovators.
Haha, yeah, this is a very good point. After all, no government has ever put people in space.
Lol all you have to do is Google “spacex subsidies” to see how dumb this tweet is
And here lies my problem with :freeze-peach: - being able to tweet absolute bullshit to tens of thousands of people and having it spread like wildfire
Did you know that Elon Musk is helping his fellow innovators and entrepreneurs get into space exploration by offering funds to help their start ups? Google “SpaceX subsidies” to learn more.
The electric entrepreneur didn’t deny the company gets the incentives, however he went on CNBC’s Power Lunch show on Monday, blasting the report as “incredibly misleading and deceptive to the reader.”
OK, so you admit you get government funding, but you disagree with the article because it makes you look bad
The people who think they are free thinkers are the one’s who most believe in the ruling class propaganda
What problem does sending civilians into space solve?
I feel like people (even liberals) would be a lot more enthusiastic about the space program if it wasn’t so deeply intertwined with the MIC and imperialism, and if it wasn’t being used as blatant PR by irritating capitalists.
State-owned enterprises given a reasonable amount of social surplus, so that no one is left behind. Instead it’s treated like a pet project for the wealthy, which is a bad look while we have rampant poverty, inequality, and other social dysfunctions that could be helped by a more just redistribution.
I like space exploration a lot and feel like Gil Scot Heron was right, it’s a tense duality, a land of contrasts
I mostly agree with this, there’s huge potential for science & engineering out in the void, but I still have serious doubts human exploration missions will ever be more than publicity stunts.
Sending even a single human to Mars orbit for tele-operation would easily cost the same as scores of Perseverance probes for dubious benefit. Sending a human touchdown & return mission could easily get you hundreds of probes for the same cost. You may not get as quick or as through of a test, but you can afford to throw a half-dozen specialist probes at basically anything that catches your fancy.
