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Well, ultimately they're trying to help out Boeing and other major contractors, right? It's not about big government versus private industry, it's about privat
by saucetenuto 12y ago
Well, ultimately they're trying to help out Boeing and other major contractors, right? It's not about big government versus private industry, it's about private industry defended by lobbying and pork-barrel concessions versus private industry that doesn't have those things.
Not that that's better.
- TheHypnotist 12y agoIt's worse, actually.
- mncolinlee 12y agoI'd argue SpaceX is very likely getting into the lobbyist game, too. The major difference is that the United Launch Alliance consists of big defense players whose collective clout and spending on political donations and lobbying makes SpaceX look like a joke. Also, the top military contractors have been convicted on numerous occasions of deliberately defrauding taxpayers without losing contracts over this behavior. This can only continue to happen if they're being protected by powerful people. The military procurement industry is a notoriously corrupt circle which rewards the largest and most inept, as the Joint Strike Fighter proves. http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/fraudulent-defense-contractors-paid-1-trillion http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/fraudu...
- saucetenuto 12y agoYou're right, of course. This is the sort of thing that Eisenhower foresaw when he warned against the military-industrial complex, but even with the benefit of hindsight I don't know what we could have done about it. Everyone's incentives are aligned, and in the wrong direction.