SpaceX-Contractor-Style
We less government types want the government doing as little as conceivably possible.
Fortunately for us – so did the Founding Fathers. And they drafted and ratified the Constitution to do exactly that – limit the federal government’s activities to a few, specifically proscribed things.
And the Founders strenuously recommended that state and local governments not do very much either. Because they knew a fundamental truth of life:
Government stinks at doing everything. Because…human nature.
Behold again my Wallet Rule:
If you go out on a Friday night with your wallet – and you go out the following Friday night with my wallet – on which Friday night are you going to have more fun?
Obviously, you’re going to have a whole lot more fun with my wallet – because you don’t care what my wallet looks like at the end of the evening.
Well, government is always on other peoples’ wallets – ours. In gambling parlance – they’re playing with house money. Government will thus never spend money as wisely or well as the people who earned it – from whom government takes it.
It is why H.L. Mencken wisely, rightly said:
“I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.”
Government steals our money – and then spends it stupidly. I’d say that’s evil.
One way we try to improve government is to – rather than have government do something itself – have government contract out to private providers to do it.
Unfortunately, the intrinsic problem remains – government is still involved. And worse still – is still in ultimate charge of whatever it is they are contracting out to have done.
Which means the results we get from government contracting out – are barely any better than the government keeping it in house.
In no small part because government contracting – almost always means government cronyism.
The government money is rarely handed to the best of a gaggle of private applicants to get the gig.
The copious cash is instead handed to governments closest cronies.
And – the government is stupid and lazy. So once they get comfortable handing cash to a crony – they’ll keep handing cash to that crony. Contract, after contract, after contract, after.…
This Deep State bureaucratic inertia lasts for years and years – and thus transcends the presidents and administrations We the People elect in our lame attempt to rein in the nonsense.
The same dumbness that takes place under Democrat administrations – continues under Republican administrations. Because that’s the way the Deep State bureaucrats do business.
But one example:
Uber-Leftist uber-crony Jeff Bezos’ Amazon received in 2013 – under the Democrat Barack Obama Administration – a $600 million monopoly cloud contract with the CIA.
And uber-Leftist uber-crony Jeff Bezos’ Amazon is now – under the Republican Donald Trump Administration – about to receive a $10 billion monopoly cloud contract with the Defense Department.
Which brings us to the King of All Cronies – Elon Musk. The $5 Billion Government Money Man. Get that staggering tally? Even by ridiculous DC standards – $5 billion to one guy is a LOT of government money.
And that total was cited in 2015 – so by now Musk has received oh-so-much more.
No one cronies or cashes government checks like Musk.
Oh-so-much of the government money Musk receives – is for his bogus fake energy projects like Tesla Motors and Solar City. He stands up fake energy companies – so that they can then cash government checks:
“Los Angeles entrepreneur Elon Musk has built a multibillion-dollar fortune running companies that make electric cars, sell solar panels and launch rockets into space.”
Electric cars and solar panels – are fake-energy-reliant. Which means they are government-money-reliant. Because when fake energy companies lose their government money – they very quickly thereafter go out of business.
Europe’s Green Energy Industry Faces Collapse As Subsidies Are Cut
Musk’s fake energy government money – is straight cash homie. Musk gets unfettered subsidies.
However, Musk’s rocket company – SpaceX – receives the previously discussed government contracts. The results are hardly better. Yet we have continued to nigh exclusively deal with Musk…for years.
SpaceX Landing Fails – April 2015
SpaceX Rocket Explodes During Cargo Launch to Space Station – June 2015
Explosion at SpaceX Launch Pad at Cape Canaveral – September 2016
A Highly Classified US Spy Satellite is Missing after a SpaceX Mission Failure – January 2018
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Suffers a Rocket-Engine Failure During Testing – April 2018
Which brings us to this latest bit of inanity:
SpaceX and ULA Win Over Half a Billion Dollars in New Air Force Launch Contracts
This bureaucratic-inertia-contract is all that is wrong with government contracting – and then some.
Including the fact that we are now yet again re-funding a repeatedly failed SpaceX – to do things it appears no longer would even really help us with today’s problems. Even if SpaceX finally, suddenly started getting it right.
The US Military is Preparing for War without GPS: “With one attack, an enemy could take out 70 per cent of the US Army’s major combat systems, forcing it back to the days of the industrial age.”
We’re WAY too reliant on satellites.
So the question is: Why are we still dumping so much coin into SpaceX – who can’t seem to consistently get satellites into orbit – to continue to try to consistently get satellites into orbit?
When we’re already WAY too reliant on satellites?:
“‘Militaries around the world have begun to understand the advantages that the US has enjoyed because of uncontested access to the space domain,’ (Colonel Richard Zellmann, commander of the 1st Space Brigade) recently told reporters.
“Russia and China are both developing satellites capable of maneuvering through space, potentially allowing them to smash into another orbiting object.”
Oh goody – everyone knows we’re WAY too reliant on satellites.
Space War is Coming – and the U.S. is Not Ready: “Russia and China are years ahead of the United States in developing the means to destroy or disable satellites that the U.S. military depends on for everything from gathering intelligence to guiding precision bombs, missiles and drones.”
Oh goody.
The weaponization of space – is well on the way. Well, elsewhere in the world, mostly.
The Real Danger From Space Weapons
The government should get out of its Deep State bureaucratic-inertia rut – and stop mindlessly handing huge coin to proven failures like SpaceX.
To do things that are of rapidly decreasing import.
And instead refocus our time, effort, attention and money – on the problems and threats of, you know, today. And tomorrow.
Just a thought….
This first appeared in Red State.