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The problem, of course, is that the way humanity is set up, only billionaires can do some important things. Regardless of your feelings about Elon, what would
by mrkstu 2y ago
The problem, of course, is that the way humanity is set up, only billionaires can do some important things.
Regardless of your feelings about Elon, what would the strategic implications for the US vs Russia and China be minus SpaceX?
SpaceX can exist solely because of the way our system is set up to reward founders with large amounts of capital. The same goes for large portions of our economy- the same parts that have kept the US financially afloat vs the rest of the world and provide massive funding to states like California to support their progressive policies.
Imagine California without Silicon Valley and you imagine it without billionaires.
- mola 2y agoIcbm were done without SpaceX GPS was done without SpaceX
- ultrablack 2y agoNothing stopped NASA from doing what SpaceX did. Or New York City. Its not like they started with billions and billions. In fact, many claims that it was all funded by the government. Well, why didn't they just built it themselves?
- JKCalhoun 2y agoYou mention China, Russia — who are the billionaires over there we are counter-acting with Musk, etc.?
- gnz11 2y agoSilicon Valley existed before billionaires and plenty of university/government funding flowed in. Silicon Valley doesn’t require billionaires but billionaires require Silicon Valley.
- throwway120385 2y agoYeah Silicon Valley got started through government-funded research into applied materials science. The inventor of the transistor worked at a university before he struck out on his own to build a company, and his research started at that university on a grant-funded project. I would wager most of what you take for granted out of "Silicon Valley" started as fundamental or applied research funded by a government. The current generation of AI hype certainly did.
- latentcall 2y ago> Regardless of your feelings about Elon, what would the strategic implications for the US vs Russia and China be minus SpaceX? I don’t give a rat. I don’t need or want America to be the numba one nation ever. Doesn’t matter to me. I’d rather the USA take care of its citizens. > Imagine California without Silicon Valley and you imagine it without billionaires. This sounds like heaven.
- leshow 2y agoThe state keeps the billionaires afloat though. Tesla, SpaceX, all of Musk's companies wouldn't exist without government welfare. Other big monopolies benefit from government protection and subsidy. Billionaires are not a fact of nature, they exist because the rules we have created allows them to exist. Different rules could make them not exist, and society would benefit hugely. > Regardless of your feelings about Elon, what would the strategic implications for the US vs Russia and China be minus SpaceX? Weird to think of everything in the view of great power competition. Like, you can't have healthcare cause spaceX needs to beat China? There are many options.
- deepsquirrelnet 2y agoStatistical extremes exist in any sufficiently large population (eg people). Extreme wealth concentration is a mathematical certainty if there are no regulations opposing it. While there is probably correlation to things like intelligence and effort, it is guaranteed to be weak at the extreme tails of the distribution. Perhaps you are much more likely to be intelligent if you are ultra wealthy, but not significantly more than intelligent people of average income. Perhaps you put in more effort than an average person, but there are physical and temporal limitations than place a hard upper bound. Success is much more correlated with what situation you are born into, what advantages you have, who your personal connections are, timing and ultimately luck. It’s not all that unlike an investor who has repeated success, writes a book, becomes famous for being a “good investor” only to find out they can’t repeat their success. It’s just statistics to a point. Historical counterfactual suggests that if a company like SpaceX, competition pressures would likely have driven similar innovation. Blue Origin might be a more dominant player, for instance. I’m sure this is all very hard to believe if you are a person of great success.
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoYes, famously no expeditions were mounted to the new world. Oh wait, that's why we have corporations. How many Silicon Valley made billionaires required Silicon Valley billionaires to come into existence? I remember a valley where billionaires really didn't make themselves known other Ellison being and asshole and flying into SJO past sound restriction and things like the Monterey Aquarium.