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minhazm | 2 years ago

The federal government is incapable of efficiently allocating resources at scale, it's just the reality. Take a look at the defense industry. I have a friend who worked for a 3 letter agency, left and joined a private contractor and was assigned to the same team and project again but at 2x the pay. In practice the actual cost to the government is likely 3x factoring in the profits the contractor makes. Government pay scales also make it so that it makes no sense to work for the government if you're in a high demand / high pay field. That means the government tends to get the bottom of the barrel talent & then they end up massively overpaying for "butts-in-seats" contractors who do the same exact job at a way higher cost.

That's why we have things like the FCC, FAA and DoD who oversee things like telecommunications and rocket launches hopefully without putting too much of a damper on innovation and progress while also protecting lives.

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FireBeyond|2 years ago

> The federal government is incapable of efficiently allocating resources at scale, it's just the reality.

The US is the Land of Middlemen. Government are capable of doing so (see 'medical care in much of the rest of the world'). That doesn't specifically change that it is generally better for the "common good" that large infrastructure projects are often better in the hands of an entity that is not corporate profit-seeking at all costs.

> That's why we have things like the FCC, FAA and DoD who oversee things like telecommunications and rocket launches

SpaceX is using Tonga as a 'flag of convenience' for these launches, likely because Tonga has a far more lax regulatory oversight system - it's certainly not because of SpaceX's heavy connection to the Pacific island nation.