[flagged]
Comments like this boggle me how someone can be offended about massive achievements simply because they think something else should come first... who are you to set others priorities?
We need this sort of excitement and progress to continue... all too soon the ISS will be gone.
I am not offended by SpaceX achievements. I am perfectly fine with SpaceX internet constellation. It has quite a crazy cost, but somehow its utility is proven for a lot of folks, not just one random guy.
What is the problem with that? This is funding space research and development by SpaceX. This just feels like a generic "few can pay for it but I don't therefore it's bad", you're just being envious.
Capitalism is not perfect, but at least to me this is more of a moral issue than an economic one.
I think your CO2 point is a great example, why would a Communist or Socialist economic system be inherently more eco-friendly than a Capitalist system? You now have a system where there is a government willing to "plan" or "intervene" in certain aspects of the economy, but unless the government actually cares about pollution nothing will happen. You could even theoretically have a centrally-planned economy that WANTS to increase emissions.
The largest polluter in the world is a Communist country, and in the last 30 years their CO2 emissions have sextupled, while the US's emissions per year have remained flat.
Morality != Economics
I guess you're talking about China here, who has a supposed "socialist market economy" (with strong private sector, stock markets and foreign investments), high wealth inequality, authoritarian governance, private property ownership and very low social welfare.
The only way China could be considered communist would be because it's a one-party state with a self-proclaimed party with "Communist" in the name, but in reality and on the ground, China isn't communist at all so not a great example.
Of course it's a moral issue, but give enough money to immoral people, and see what happens.
This "stunt" was a major achievement for humankind, maybe this "version" of capitalism isn't that bad after all
I don’t know where did you get that. Or even in what sense you mean it. Is this a normative or a descriptive statement?
Other than that. I feel your frustration. I don’t know what capitalism was “meant to do” but this is clearly what it delivered.
Space exploration produces around a drop in the water of our C02 footprint for now. It is probably the hardest things to make net zero but it's such a tiny amount that it doesn't really matter.
People flying around in these things all the time is likely so far away that a totally different set of energy technologies will be available.
> Just so that this billionaire dude can spend 10 minutes in space? How much human work did this feat cost?
circa 1930s:
Look! Rich people are starting to fly in planes! It must be stopped! All this human labour, research and engineering just to that a select few get to reach the sky! Shut it down!
capitalism: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.
Which when you think about it is absolutely amazing. To have a private company achieve this has brought traveling to space as a private citizen much closer to the average person than NASA has in 50 years. Trailblazers like this pay and pave the way to make this more affordable and more efficient for those to follow.