NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

This makes me think of Intels decline over the last decade or so. It feels to me like a canary in a coal mine. Perhaps of a failing in the US system as a whole. It is possible we are not quite the world leader we once were, despite bailouts, despite legislation like the CHIPS act, despite a CEO dedicated to a roadmap to regain technical superiority … maybe we cannot win this race. Have we reached a point where managing public perception is more important than truth, where wealth inequality has reached a point of a new feudal like caste system, where our institutions now function to primarily manage and preserve an unhealthy society that is primarily exploitative and does not have the needs of the populace first and foremost. Where economic indicators, economic lingo and policy just uses a vernacular to hide its direct purpose to provide safety for the haves at the expense of the have nots. I realize this is a negative take but looking at Lockheed Martin , looking at Boeing, on and on. Maybe we cannot get back to the moon, maybe we cannot design the best new modern passenger jet, maybe just maybe China has already surpassed or at least equaled the US as a superpower.

It is just occurring to you now that the US is in decline?

> where wealth inequality has reached a point of a new feudal like caste system

This is a global problem, not limited to the US. It's also the end-state of capitalism because having (access to) more money makes it easier to have access to more money, and money drives everything else.

> where our institutions now function to primarily manage and preserve an unhealthy society that is primarily exploitative and does not have the needs of the populace first and foremost.

For me, it has always looked like the use was primarily exploitative and completely opposed to supporting the populace.

> Where economic indicators, economic lingo and policy just uses a vernacular to hide its direct purpose to provide safety for the haves at the expense of the have nots.

This is not new. Chomsky told us this in the 60s. The Catholic Church used a similar strategy for over a millennia.

I'm not disagreeing with you, only attempting to disperse your sense of surprise.

Replace "despite" with "because of" and you'll get a clearer picture. The US is looted. China is holding on because they've managed to reign in their billionaires and their greed towards their own population. The US commoditized it's own population a long time ago, with the whole world watching and shaking it's head. Life expectancy is a good indicator for this.

The postwar US at least reined in inequality through the New Deal. That has been progressively abandoned since the 1980s.

Wealth equality is not a desirable goal. Optimizing absolute standards of living is a much better target and inevitably allows for some people to have better lives than others. This obsession with other people's things has always been known to be a societal detriment. Exodus 20:17

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Neither shalt thou steal. Very difficult to believe that those handful of people with almost all the clams didn't get them by not robbing you.

That's the mistake, isn't it? Like many hard to believe things, it is nonetheless true. Stephen King wrote books a lot of people like, and a lot of people were willing to give him money for that. He didn't rob them for it. He just happened to write a book a lot of people like. Steph Curry is far wealthier than the median American, let alone the 10th percentile. Who did he rob by landing 3 pointers better than anyone else?

Perhaps Taylor Swift is the thief for singing in a way a lot of people like. Must be an Eleventh Commandment or something.