NASA freezes Starliner missions

I mostly feel like you didn't read my comment since you're pointing out the exact conundrum I did, however yes obviously the government is better positioned to spend some of that money, there are a lot of things that have long term positive externalities that are not captured by capitalist incentives. The rest of it? Why don't we just take it from the rich and give it to the poor. We can have a progressive tax that approaches 100% as you get into the 100s of millions of dollars that's redistributed as UBI. Estate taxes that prevent the buildup of generational wealth etc.

I think it's an organisational problem. The financial problem is an outcome, not a cause.

Society devolves to status hierarchies, and the people who climb those most successfully are narcissists and sociopaths.

So there's a default assumption that you have to be that kind of crazy, glib, abusive, exploitative, bullshitter/charlatan to do remarkable things.

Occasionally you get someone who is both narcissistic and exceptionally talented. They get shit done, but they leave a trail of human wreckage behind them.

Sometimes - often - it eventually turns out that it isn't even the right shit.

Meanwhile talent that lacks that narcissistic edge is overlooked and sidelined.

This is cripplingly inefficient, because so much ability is just wasted.

And it's very literally disastrous, because crazy people can't be trusted to have a sane relationship with the physical world or with other humans.

So the problem is engineering effective hierarchies which are reality-based, have enough incentive to reward drive and talent, but exclude - or at least strongly constrain - unhealthy and toxic Cluster B types.

Easy, isn't it?

> but they leave a trail of human wreckage behind them.

Musk has not left a trail of human wreckage behind.

Someone worth 100B is rich as hell. Giving out that money to every american means less than 300 dollars each.

So for that amount of money, you just killed the startup economy and killed all grand vision projects like SpaceX. Nothing gets off the ground.

Sounds very much like the socialist paradise I live in called Europe. Where the smartest most ambitious people leave for the US.

His children and ex wives might disagree

Musk's personal life is none of yours nor my concern.

The Marxists are downvoting you because they don't understand that there is no other place in history or the world where SpaceX/Tesla/etc. could exist other than the US now. But that door is rapidly closing.

In not too many years, the light of human ingenuity will be extinguished. Elon is just in a race against time.

There is another place but Americans don't like to hear it. The number of STEM graduates every year in China is equal to the entire STEM working population in the US. They realize the only way out for them is innovation.

Please read more about the space race. Soviets were kicking our ass for a while until we got into high gear. And there was no rich billionaire, or entire govt institutions to help with technical debt

>The number of STEM graduates every year in China is equal to the entire STEM working population in the US.

This is a problem statement not a solution. If the stat above is true, then there is obviously something very wrong with that system if they still can't out innovate us.

Yes they can. DJI drones, solar, battery tech, EVs they are world leaders. They also linked the entire country with a high speed rail network. The US is largely software focused and they are hardware focused, which is frankly the bigger problem. Eventually they are likely to match SpaceX as well.

Modern semiconductor manufacture requires tech from the entire world. China is aiming to replicate pretty much all of it because of sanctions.

While the US and Europe are killing themselves with regulation and DEI, China has been rapidly developing every year and eventually the US is going to get a rude awakening.