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I could care less if he added a Tesla commercial to his rocket test flight where the car could have blown up, making for a very loosy commercial. Why don’t we talk about the Billionaires that are working to F the world over instead of the guy who’s pushing for space tech and electric cars.

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This is the same faulty logic the right uses for everything.

Step 1) Cut funding to something, like education.
Step 2) Point out how the government does such a shitty job of providing education. The only solution must be to have private education!
Step 3) Cut public education some more, cut taxes some more. Have more private education.
Step 4) Repeat.

If schools were actually funded properly, they could be great.

NASA, same deal. Rich 1% assholes, like Mr. Musky, control the US government and have it underfund NASA. If NASA were funded properly who knows where it would be now? It hasn’t been funded properly since… forever ago?

This is exactly the kind of billionaire that is fucking the world over. He’s just put on a show such that the gullible believe otherwise.

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Nope. Not even close. Look up the reasons the SLS exists at all. NASA doesn’t need this rocket, has no missions for it to fly, and it’s costing billions per year to develop, plus will be billions per launch for an totally expendable rocket.

The ONLY reason it exists is because the US Congress wants it to, due to specific congressmen and senators wanting money to be spent in their districts and states.

That’s it.

It’s literally pork barrelling instead of good science or technology.

Do you think NASA itself builds rockets without paying commercial aerospace companies? ALL NASA space launches are commercial launches. It’s already a built-in part of the military industrial complex.

SpaceX was paid billions by NASA to resupply the ISS because they could do it cheaply. The only other option was United Launch Alliance, which was the monopoly provider at the time. A COMMERCIAL monopoly provider.

SpaceX existing is saving NASA billions. Billions that would otherwise be going to shareholders of military contracting companies.

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Look up good old Thiokol

It’s the concentration of wealth funding SpaceX that bothers me. The organizations that research AI and medicine aren’t funded by eccentric multi billionaires.

Honestly the size of money spent of blockbusters does bother me. I don’t get why we spend 200 billion dollars on an Avengers movie. Musicians don’t spend a lot to make their art, so they should just be taxed higher on income…

I agree with all of your criticisms, but they are criticisms of congress, not NASA itself. Imagine if NASA had the discretion how to spend its money and also had enough to spend? You know, some scientists deciding what is most important.

Instead, we have this:

That’s not NASA’s fault. It’s the fault of rich assholes bribing and controlling congress. If Elon Musk really wanted to enrich mankind and not himself then:

At bare minimum SpaceX should be non-profit.

At less than bare minimum he could have given NASA money to fund those climate missions.

He could have legally bribed congress, just like the other rich assholes, and told the representatives he wanted NASA to be funded properly, and not in a way that benefits the military industrial complex.

Seems like only the Koch brothers know how to do this. Why aren’t so-called “good rich people” doing it? Because they are also evil! Fuck the Zuckerburg, the Gates, and the Bezos right along with the Musk.

Instead with those billions, Musk strokes his own ego, puts a fucking car in space, makes flamethrowers and other idiotic nonsense. You won’t catch me cheering for him until he’s got a grave to drag my ass on.

Even if I agree with your argument, which I don’t, you’re also completely overlooking the benefits that this technology has on the rest of our lives.

Tech benefits of NASA:

https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2008/tech_benefits.html

Who knows what technologies will get developed as a result of SpaceX.

More the latter. He doesn’t lead shit at SpaceX - He might be the CTO, but the guy who actually does all the normal CTO duties, plus leads teams, etc, that’s Tom Mueller, CTO of propulsion, and an actual rocket scientist. Elon’s position as CTO is largely just a PR bullshit. He doesn’t lead teams at Tesla, nor did he really have much of a hand in the original design, or the actually innovative parts of those cars. He doesn’t lead teams at SolarCity, nor at Neuralink.

His real primary roles, and arguably his most important ones, are to sign cheques, and be wheeled out on stage for press conferences, because his cult of personality is amazing - and very cheap - marketing. Though, I suppose he’s rapidly gaining a third role, selling gimmicky tat. Hats and cheap roofing torches stuffed into airsoft guns, anyone?

Fun random fact - Tom Mueller also designed the TR-106 and TR-107 rocket engines, built and used by NASA’s Space Launch Initiative, which is basically their branch dedicated to doing what SpaceX is doing now. The project has rather stalled out, since one of their best propulsion designers was hired away and went into the corporate world instead.

You mean, we shouldn’t talk about the union-busting, narcissistic weirdo who believes public transport is full of serial killers, and weaves elaborate conspiracies about his failures? The one whose response to allegations of a culture of racism at his company, responded with what amounted to "Be thick-skinned and accept apology’? The one who, when his assistant asked to be paid commensurate with the duties he expected her to take on, got rid of her by putting her on leave for two weeks, assigning her duties to a team of other people, and then fired her because that team of people managed to do her job?

Musk is barely, barely out to fuck the world less than those other billionares, and in most cases, is no better.

I know what NASA’s done and the reason we benefited from them exploring space was that they are a public organization. The technologies developed as a result of SpaceX will be exploited for corporate gain in ways that were never the case for NASA’s research.

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Right. Exactly. But for all the bad decisions congress is making about NASA, I find it very hard to blame Elon Musk personally.

Again, I’m not a fan of him personally, but I can’t help but get excited about new rocket technology. And there just isn’t anything else even close to as exciting as todays Falcon Heavy launch.

I get your “kill all billionaires” sentiment, really. But I can’t believe you don’t understand why people are excited about simultaneous booster landings.

https://twitter.com/Rotorfocus/status/960986779905069056

Oh please, give me a break!

The technologies developed as a result of NASA are exploited just as much for corporate gain as anything we’ll get from SpaceX. Are artificial limbs free? Can I get solar panels installed on my roof for no cost?

Everything on that list is “exploited” for monetary gain, either by having to actually pay for it or through taxes. There’s no difference.

I’m not going to respond because you clearly care about this considerably more than I do.

Imagine if Superman were standing on the street. Now imagine someone jumps out of a building. Superman watches that person fall to their death. Do you blame Superman for this?

He didn’t push the person. Yet, he had the power to relatively easily save them, and chose not to do so. He may not be guilty of murder, but he’s still a fucking, evil, heartless, sociopathic asshole.

Every significantly wealthy person has the power to actually solve many of society’s problems. If they choose not to do so, they are no different than that Superman. Can you imagine what would be accomplished if an actual good person had that money? Even if an idiot like me had that money, I could at least do better than these jerks.

I’m not blaming Musk any more than any of the others. He just happens to be the current target because people are clapping for him today. What the fuck! Wake the hell up. What next, are we going to clap when Bill Gates buys a new Porsche 911 for his collection?

Yeah, your entire post is why I’m not a fan of him personally. When I say “leading teams” I didn’t mean literally being in charge. He’s the public face of what happens at these companies, much like Richard Branson is with all the various Virgin companies. It’s a job, and he’s good at it, and from what I can tell is no more or less of a heartless cunt than other tech billionaires.

Still…
https://twitter.com/MaximEristavi/status/960982919551516673

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Yeah, that was pretty cool. And as much as it was an ego-stroke, so was the video from the Cargo bay, opening the doors and exposing the roadster to space.

The only problem with your analogy is that with Tesla and Solar City, Elon Musk really is doing his part in helping solve some of society’s problems. Becoming a billionaire might be his primary motive, or maybe a byproduct of really wanting the world to reduce its carbon output. But he IS doing something.

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For me, it basically comes down to this:

Would I prefer that NASA be the ones doing this? Of course! But NASA’s budget is pathetic. In 2014, NASA’s entire budget accounted for half a penny out of every tax dollar. The fact that we having people like Neil deGrasse Tyson basically begging for that to be doubled, for just ONE penny out of our tax dollars to go to NASA is pathetic and depressing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbIZU8cQWXc

But if the US government isn’t going to fund NASA, I’d rather have someone continue research into space, even if it’s a private company like SpaceX. Better somebody is doing this than nobody.

www.penny4nasa.org

Elon Musk he a lot of pennies. Why doesn’t he fund NASA instead of SpaceX?