link to original reddit post by /u/mrpenguin_86


Say what you will about Musk, for those of you who follow, the SpaceX vs. Boeing competition going on right now shows why socialism can never produce the benefits to society that capitalism does.

For those of you not in the know, here's an overview of the situation. SpaceX is building "Starship", a reusable rocket that is to be used to start colonizing Mars, and they've been launching Falcon 9 rockets to the ISS for a couple years. Back on Earth, NASA wants ships that can supply crewed launches to the International Space Station and ultimately the Artermis program for landing humans back on the moon. Boeing is the lead on the team building a solution for NASA.

As most of us know, NASA and other federal contracts to the big national defense boys (e.g., Boeing) are not meant to progress society; they are meant to be jobs programs and meant to spend lots of money. To wit, Boeing's solution has currently not launched. It is expected to cost $2B per launch. In contrast, SpaceX's solution only took a few years to develop and is being built at what they expect to be at around $30M per launch, and they've built multiple prototypes, some having gotten off the ground and landed already.

SpaceX builds for the commercial sector. Boeing builds for the government. Guess who makes progress and guess who spends money hand over foot for worse results?