• Deflated0ne@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    Has anyone considered funding NASA?

    They made rockets that didn’t explode with duct tape and a TI-83 calculator.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      What “they made” 50 years ago is of little value now. Expertise matters, and it’s lost with time passing.

      Still - yes. Nationalization is a bad solution because it gives the state power to nationalize. Seems a truism.

      Just let NASA work in its normal role. Instead of replacing that with SpaceX contracts.

      • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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        22 days ago

        Looks like we found someone who believed it was financially necessary for the manufacture of the shuttle to be spread across the country.

    • wewbull@feddit.uk
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      22 days ago

      If that was actually their expenditure I don’t think they’d have their budget cut.

    • Uruanna@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Shouldn’t be incompatible with nationalizing SpaceX and Starlink. Just give it all to NASA, actually.

  • Subverb@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    One way to get businesses to move their factories back to the US due to tarrifs: Start nationalizing them.

    /s

  • redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    22 days ago

    Starlink should not just be nationalized but internationalized.
    It is internet for everyone on earth, not everyone in the USA.

    Every larger nation deploying their own constellation would be a pointless waste of resources, and every smaller nation having to find reliable partner-nations to tap into for that internet access would inevitably lead to people ending up without access due to political games.

    Low orbit satellite constellations are the perfect candidate for sharing, they would literally sit unused over most of their orbits otherwise.

    • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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      22 days ago

      I think every larger nation deploying their own constellation would reduce people losing access due to political games.

      If there’s only one network with the same topology as Starlink, then the USA, China, or Russia will end up making a bunch of rules on everyone else just like Elon does today. Look how the USA abuses centralized internet infrastructure already. Multiple overlapping systems would be wastefully redundant, but reduces the risk of censorship.

      We can’t get along and can’t have nice things.

      • redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        22 days ago

        You want a truly multinational organization responsible for it, nothing that can be controlled by a single nation, even one as (ex)influential as the us.
        Something based on the UN perhaps.

        Combine that with making internet access a human right, to stop denying connectivity outright.

        Ideally then you could’t enforce meaningful censorship, but more realistically you would route regions to their respective governments servers so they could censor as before on their territory.
        That would not guarantee free access to the internet to everyone, but should be an acceptable compromise to basically all nations.

        After that, other doubting nations could still pull their own constellation, nothing is stopping that.

        I would love if the internet program was uncensored, but that probably needs personal circumvention same as now, if such a program wants any degree of success.

          • redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            22 days ago

            Yeah.
            The maintenance of these conatellations is pricy, so perhaps if such an international program does prove itself trustworthy you’d see other national alternatives get retired.

            I mean it’s not like the US would do it anyway as things stand, more likely for such a program to get started independently and to end up outcompeting starlink down the line.

  • reksas@sopuli.xyz
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    22 days ago

    Just having such wealth and thus power in hands of singular humans is risk to all of humanity. With musk you are but big enough drug fueled temper tantrum away from pretty important infrastructure coming crashing down.

  • TheBannedLemming@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    I am not saying that I don’t agree with you. But this country is still not even close to considering nationalizing its own telecommunication infrastructure. Much less a privately held space company and a service of communication satellites. A large chunk of America believes that a for-profit business model for every good and service possible in life is the best course of action.

  • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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    21 days ago

    I disagree.

    1. You already have a government space agency. Maybe give them more funding so they don’t have to rely on space-x to get their stuff into orbit?

    2. There’s a national telecom network already in place. It at least has the potential to be faster and more reliable, if it isn’t already… At least compared to low earth orbit satellite coverage.

    There’s no good reason to continue providing Elon or his companies with any government handouts. Pull that funding and give it to… I dunno, students who have more debt than homeowners with a mortgage… NASA… Literally anything that helps people?

  • Knightfox@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    A lot of people are calling this a bailout for Elon, but in reality it would be a seizure. Elon doesn’t want to let go of Starlink and the US likely wouldn’t pay him what it’s worth to take it over.

    What people seem to be missing is the precedent this would set. It’s all well and good when we empower the office of the president to seize a private company we don’t like, but after we give them that power what’s to stop them from seizing other businesses?

    XYZ company refuses to get rid of their DEI policy because the shareholders voted to keep it? Well now the orange man can seize it.

    Let’s not forget that previously it took 2/3rd majority to confirm presidential appointments, but the Senate under Obama decided to change that rule to 50% to get past Republican objections. The result of this is all these shit appointments Trump has passed with 51% of the Senate, none of them would have gotten by if the Democrats hadn’t made a precedent for changing the rules.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          22 days ago

          It was more than something like a loan, the federal government actually a fair amount of control over the company. It ended up divesting itself once the new, restructured company made its IPO, but during the bailout, the US gov was technically in control, and it got priority over all other interests since the company went private with special financing.

          It’s certainly different than other nationalized industries, but it was also much more than a regular bailout.

      • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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        22 days ago

        I mean if we count bailouts as nationalization, then now we’ve got like some kinda national “socialism” where state and corporate power have fused.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          22 days ago

          The GM situation was a more than a bailout, they took complete control of the company, took it private, liquidated some assets, then sold it off in a new IPO.

          It’s not all that different from a private equity firm doing the same thing, the major difference is the legal protections the US had (e.g. it got priority over all other creditors). If the US wanted to keep it and run it, it could’ve.