Some of these examples, particularly SpaceX, are actually a pretty good place to make the case against the rule-by-billionaires. Individual agency and freedom

Some of these examples, particularly SpaceX, are actually a pretty good place to make the case against the rule-by-billionaires. Individual agency and freedom of action is great when one starts out. We wouldn't have reusable rockets without that freedom of enterprise early on. But I think it starts to have drawbacks at scale, as things pass from development into being business as usual with critical infrastructure. Like, what happens if Elon Musk goes insane? Seriously. The future of human space flight in America basically hinges on SpaceX. The American economy increasingly hinges on technology launched by SpaceX satellites. Particularly in the case of SpaceX, it's a privately held with a majority controlling stake. The Ukrainian state is now relying on Starlink. But nothing much stops him from simply liquidating it all tomorrow because he's decided space guns are a better method of launch. (Of course, if he actually did that I suspect we'd see parts of the company nationalized, to be honest. Which I think naturally raises the question of whether such an important project of such scale should be subject to entirely private whims.)