Sure, but all-things-being-equal -- whatever that means in this scenario -- how long would it take an fictional Elon Musk to get to where the actual Elon Musk i

Sure, but all-things-being-equal -- whatever that means in this scenario -- how long would it take an fictional Elon Musk to get to where the actual Elon Musk is today? Where would you see government propping him up in the process? The only reason government got us to the point it did in space exploration is because, for a brief-brief-brief period of time Elon Musk types were running the government. Now it is sycophantic cronies. It seems like having captial directed towards enlightened visionaries/beneficent dictators is preferable.