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Moreover, where do people think corruption comes from? The human desire to be richer and the power to make it happen. Do people think Trump, Musk, and Thiel d

by ethbr1 2y ago

Moreover, where do people think corruption comes from? The human desire to be richer and the power to make it happen. Do people think Trump, Musk, and Thiel don't want to be richer? And worse, that the poorly-vetted people who have attached themselves to this administration don't? The idea that getting rid of fraud in a chaotic fashion is going to lead to less fraud is laughable, unless the assumption is also 'All of the people who are doing this are altruistic and moral.' If you create chaos at scale, you simply end up with different fraud. And you can quote me on this in 6 years when investigations begin to lead to trials... (Which, naturally, Republicans will claim are politically-motivated? But you know who complains loudest about the rule of law? People who do illegal things.)

mlyle 2y ago
Musk has talked explicitly about unwinding portions of NASA and replacing it with SpaceX to "improve efficiency." Which honestly should happen to some extent (I'm not a fan of SLS). But we shouldn't become beholden to one vendor, and it's sure looking a lot more like removing options for the future and competition than a play for efficiency. And anyone doing this for their own companies in the past would be a textbook example of corruption.
- ethbr1 2y ago
  People forget that Boeing space was an excellent engineering company at one point. One of the things that fucked it up was decades of cost-plus government work. Companies become the most profitable versions of themselves the market allows them to be... which without competition usually doesn't bode well for excellence.
mrguyorama 2y ago
>Do people think Trump, Musk, and Thiel don't want to be richer? FYI, lots of dumb people actually DO believe that. "Oh they have so much money already" they say. They don't even attempt to square that with collecting more resources than some Gods, for, reasons.

by ethbr1 2y ago

mlyle 2y ago

Musk has talked explicitly about unwinding portions of NASA and replacing it with SpaceX to "improve efficiency." Which honestly should happen to some extent (I'm not a fan of SLS). But we shouldn't become beholden to one vendor, and it's sure looking a lot more like removing options for the future and competition than a play for efficiency. And anyone doing this for their own companies in the past would be a textbook example of corruption.

ethbr1 2y ago
People forget that Boeing space was an excellent engineering company at one point. One of the things that fucked it up was decades of cost-plus government work. Companies become the most profitable versions of themselves the market allows them to be... which without competition usually doesn't bode well for excellence.

mrguyorama 2y ago

>Do people think Trump, Musk, and Thiel don't want to be richer? FYI, lots of dumb people actually DO believe that. "Oh they have so much money already" they say. They don't even attempt to square that with collecting more resources than some Gods, for, reasons.