• balsoft@lemmy.ml
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      17 days ago

      Leftists are the first to laud innovation when it benefits regular people. This is just a dick measuring contest by some asshats, financed by stealing billions of dollars from their workers.

      • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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        16 days ago

        You do realize that NASA has a fixed budget for the science missions they can run right? Amd you do realize that when the launch costs for their satellites are 50x lower, that means they can run more science missions more often?

        We all hate Musk, but it’s fucking insane to look at the equivalent of the first airplane company that could land a plane and didn’t just destroy it after every flight, and say ‘thats just a dick measuring contest, how could that be useful?’

        • balsoft@lemmy.ml
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          16 days ago

          Capitalism can create innovation, but capitalism is not necessary for it. The very same innovation could have happened if the state spent a fraction of this money on R&D, without all the insane Terraform Mars T-shirts and 3 companies wasting resources to do pretty much exactly the same thing three times. Sadly the american government is not an effective redistributor of wealth, and any NASA budget comes with a million (dumb) strings attached, like spending it on certain projects that benefit the state senator who voted for it.

          Also, I don’t know where you get that 50x number, SpaceX lowered the launch cost maybe by about 3-4x compared to contemporary chinese rockets.

          • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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            16 days ago

            Capitalism can create innovation, but capitalism is not necessary for it. The very same innovation could have happened if the state spent a fraction of this money on R&D, without all the insane Terraform Mars T-shirts and 3 companies wasting resources to do pretty much exactly the same thing three times. Sadly the american government is not an effective redistributor of wealth, and any NASA budget comes with a million (dumb) strings attached, like spending it on certain projects that benefit the state senator who voted for it.

            In this situation, the state LITERALLY spent more money developing the SLS rocket, and it is going to be a colossal failure and waste of money compared to the rockets that can be reused.

            Three companies trying to produce the same thing is not a waste, it’s literally the defining feature of capitalism and why every government, including the Chinese Communist government, still uses capitalist systems. Multiple entities competing to do the same thing gives you more variety and diversity, and hedges your bets in case one of them is wrong or corrupted by flawed people in it.

            Also, I don’t know where you get that 50x number, SpaceX lowered the launch cost maybe by about 3-4x compared to contemporary chinese rockets.

            Compared to SLS, the literal state funded alternative.

    • Knoxvomica@lemmy.ca
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      17 days ago

      Half the innovation and tech you use today is because of development by research councils that are government funded, military tech (government funded) or open source projects that were forked in some way shape or form.

    • iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com
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      17 days ago

      Governments can innovate, and indeed can do so more efficiently than corporations, since they do not need profits.

      I assume you’re reading this on the Internet, if you need an example.