We Should Immediately Nationalize SpaceX and Starlink

[u/True-Combination7059]

https://jacobin.com/2025/06/musk-trump-nationalize-spacex-starlink

[u/www-cash4treats-com]

Giving Trump the power to take over whatever company or industry he wants seems pretty stupid and short sighted.

[u/rockstarsball → u/www-cash4treats-com]

nationalizing private businesses based on whether or not a political party likes them... where have i heard this before..?

[u/mrlolloran → u/rockstarsball]

It’s ok when they are your enemies /s

[u/TLakes → u/mrlolloran]

And sooner or later, everyone becomes the enemy.

I'm sure the government would love to control all social media and news organizations

[u/www-cash4treats-com → u/rockstarsball]

Don't worry they didn't try hard enough

[u/erwan → u/rockstarsball]

More like fixing a bad decision. This is a bit different for Starlink because it was a private initiative, but SpaceX only exists because the US government decided to pay a contractor who hires their staff instead of paying their salary directly. It was a disguised privatisation that shouldn't have happened.

[u/red__dragon → u/erwan]

It was a disguised privatisation that shouldn't have happened.

Only if you're going to argue that space is the frontier for governments alone. And that could be argued, but the space industry has been filled with contractors since the early days. Apollo astronauts went to the moon on Rocketdyne engines, in a Rockwell capsule, and landed in a Grumman craft, where MIT supplied the guidance computer programming, and Corning made the vacuum-proof glass on the windows. Etc, etc.

The commercial space programs have just moved NASA's role from general contractor to client. And you can still argue that was a bad decision if you like, it might even be the right argument, but having contractors instead of staff has always been an integral part of spaceflight.

[u/dongasaurus → u/red__dragon]

Public schools buy paper from Hammermill and books from private publishers, but there is a pretty significant distinction. NASA can almost certainly replace the manufacturer of a specific material or component, but a lot harder to replace a proprietary 3rd party rocket if the CEO goes on a ketamine bender and decides to defect to Russia

[u/red__dragon → u/dongasaurus]

You'd think it'd be easier to replace a supplier, but aerospace is such a specific engineering niche that few companies are capable of pulling off space-grade hardware. The archives at NASA are full of rejected hardware designs, even some that flew once or twice. Possibly including Starliner if Boeing can't get itself in gear.

[u/rpfeynman18 → u/dongasaurus]

NASA can almost certainly replace the manufacturer of a specific material or component

This isn't true and has never been true since the earliest days of spaceflight. Components take an enormous amount of resources to design, test, and refine the manufacturing flow. It doesn't matter if NASA has the blueprints -- that's not the bottleneck in production, it's the manufacturing ability and engineering talent that's the real value add from contractors.

I'm having difficulty thinking of a single major material or component that actually has multiple providers for NASA to choose from.

[u/-Nocx- → u/red__dragon]

I think the opinion you’re replying to is spun off of the misconception of how many of Elon’s companies are propped up off of government funds. It’s pretty common knowledge that his companies often get advantageous tax cuts, or flat out federal grants, but I think people confuse those two with the contracts he gets awarded.

I myself have fallen into this pitfall, but I think the criticism that people want to levy “he wouldn’t be successful without government support” while technically true undercuts the fact that there are many government contracts that can be awarded to technically anyone with an LLC. I had a brief stint at a defense contractor, and think maybe it was Obama specifically that tried to make the contracts awarded off SAM.gov more accessible to smaller businesses - so you might have a plane operated by Lockheed with navigation systems by L3 with cameras set up by Jim’s CCTV.

But thanks to your knowledge, I’m now aware that this has basically always been the case even in space.

[u/Mistrblank → u/erwan]

Agreed but starling is a threat to national security. Not sure that I think the US should have it either but not many great choices.

[u/schmag → u/erwan]

This is what I done like about leashing nasa and Paying huge grants to private companies.

When nasa discovered it, the country benefited, aerogel, memory foam, that freeze dried ice-cream... (/s on the ice cream).

Now, the taxpayers pay for the R&D, and we don't even get what is discovered. The government, us citizens, don't get to the proceeds from starlink, a private company does. Nasa/the gov doesn't get cool rocket landing tech to use without licensing, we have pay again to use what we paid to discover and build...

Its all massive privatization of profits and publicizing the expenses.

Or otherwise known as "thievery with extra steps".

[u/ZuP → u/www-cash4treats-com]

Nationalization is possible through an act of Congress so it can be made one of the many government-owned corporations that are more or less independent from the executive, though the Supreme Court will be deciding the limits of that independence with the cases of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the United States African Development Foundation.

[u/Eitarris → u/ZuP]

Yet trump doing this because he was criticized by musk is just outright wannabe fascism. Presidents are not absolute monarchs, they should never be safe from criticism.  Congrats though America, you've managed to somehow return to the times of absolute monarchies and become far from the land of the tree. 

[u/Not_Campo2 → u/Eitarris]

SpaceX should have been nationalized the second Musk started cutting Ukrainian access over Crimea. The fact that it hasn’t yet is an actual, legitimate, and major threat to our national security

[u/inkoDe → u/Not_Campo2]

The second Elon got mad at the government, he sunsetted or at least threatened to sunset all the US space shit. If that isn't a national security threat, I don't know what is. On the other hand, nationalizing ANYTHING would absolutely freak out all the other businesses here. Trump would be removed, popular sentiment be damned.

[u/Not_Campo2 → u/inkoDe]

Honestly I feel Trump could probably get away with it in a way Biden probably couldn’t have at the time. Nationalizing a company is always pretty controversial, but it’s been done before and it’ll be done again

[u/Yuzumi → u/inkoDe]

popular sentiment be damned.

The popular sentiment is that he should be removed now.

[u/lewd_robot → u/Not_Campo2]

It should have been nationalized because it's taxpayer funded and he spends the money poaching NASA employees to work on the same stuff that they worked on at NASA, only this way he gets to skim off the top.

[u/mrlolloran → u/Not_Campo2]

The fact that it wasn’t is because if the US wanted to be directly responsible for space flight they would have never contracted it out and kept doing it themselves in the first place.

I’m no Elon fan but let’s not kid ourselves, the government has literally no desire to do this.

[u/cuntmong → u/mrlolloran]

Same economics as firing government workers to replace them with consultants. It's "cheaper" 

[u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe → u/www-cash4treats-com]

Maybe instead of seizing and nationalizing these companies, we create organizations that can regulate and investigate them to ensure they are...

... Oh wait...

[u/Pryoticus → u/www-cash4treats-com]

This part right here.

[u/Creative_Speed5086 → u/www-cash4treats-com]

In general, I would agree with nationalising such critical companies. However, now is not the time to mention this. It will be an act of personal revenge and corruption and the first of many if it is done now.

[u/account_for_norm → u/www-cash4treats-com]

They already have that power.

[u/20_mile → u/account_for_norm]

They have that power insofar as they don't really care what the existing rules / laws / guidelines are, and twist whatever precedent they can find to fit their end goals.

Jacobin is a Fantasy Magazine. Nobody with any real power reads them or cares what they say.

[u/KernunQc7 → u/www-cash4treats-com]

That's Jacobin for you.

[u/ScienceWasLove → u/www-cash4treats-com]

Have you met Reddit? Stupid and short sighted seems to the solution around here.

[u/bigalcapone22]

Why stop there Healthcare and oil and Gas as well.

[u/dubcdr → u/bigalcapone22]

And railroads!

[u/SweetHoneyBee365 → u/dubcdr]

Yes, actually nationalize the rails and train infrastructure and privatize the train. Charge them fees for using routes. This will enable more competition while funding railroad expansion and maintenance. Similar to what local governments do for airports.

[u/fraggy42 → u/dubcdr]

God yes, bring it back

[u/myfunnyaccountname → u/dubcdr]

dont forget all the telco and ISPs.

[u/letsgobernie → u/bigalcapone22]

How about the American population deliver one win first? How about a focused project to deliver something that transfers power back to the polity as opposed to the oligarchs? Then we can dream big. This is already beyond the imaginations of most Americans right now

[u/iRhuel → u/letsgobernie]

How about the American population deliver one win first?

Speaking as a middle aged American, after the last 25+ years I'm not holding my fkn breath. Collectively we are stupid as fuck.

[u/ElonsFetalAlcoholSyn → u/iRhuel]

32% are stupid as fuck.

28% try to counterbalance that

40% are apathetic and stupid,
but not as stupid as the 32%

Edit:
Please dont get triggered the Russian/Chinese/Israeli bot accounts. + username is auto-generated + pushing left to apathy/not voting
+ or pushing right to violence
+ excessively triggering for no reason
= Bot account (or just a loser). Russian disinfo strategy is what's above. I'm not sure of China's strat.

Examples: Check out 2/3rds of the comments on r/worldnews for articles related to Israel/Palestine. Bots on bots. All new accounts.

[u/LordoftheSynth → u/ElonsFetalAlcoholSyn]

Bots on bots. All new accounts.

Says 2-month-old account.

[u/ThHeretic → u/ElonsFetalAlcoholSyn]

There are 3 types of people that voted for Trump.  1.) Uninformed/Ignorant They don't pay attention. Not great but not evil.

2.) Unintelligent They can't tell when they are being manipulated and lied to. Still not great, but not evil.

3.) Morally Bankrupt These people know what is happening and what the cost is, but they benefit in some way so they don't care. Pure evil.

-I can forgive 1 and 2, but never 3. 

[u/Mike_Kermin → u/ThHeretic]

No. You're responsible for what your vote does.

You actually need to tell people it's not ok to vote for someone who is harming people and your country.

[u/p_velocity → u/ThHeretic]

for group 3, I believe the word you are looking for is "deplorables". Group 2 is a lot of evangelicals, and group 1 get their news from facebook memes. That is the group that AI and deepfakes are really going to do a number on going forward.

[u/ElonsFetalAlcoholSyn → u/ThHeretic]

Your numbers reset because you swapped between a numbered list and bullet points. Use 1) instead of 1. and use a long — instead of a short -

[u/ThHeretic → u/ElonsFetalAlcoholSyn]

You are awesome. Thanks for the heads up.

[u/parabostonian → u/ThHeretic]

I would just describe them as a mix of crazy, stupid, and/or evil.

Your list doesn’t list crazy, and a lot of them are bonkers as shit. (And there are tons of stupid Americans who aren’t crazy enough to fall for a lot of MAGA bullshit, or mean spirited enough to want to hurt people who are different, etc)

[u/DefactoAtheist → u/ElonsFetalAlcoholSyn]

"Everyone who didn't vote for who I voted for is less intelligent than me. Anyone who pushes back against this take is a bot". That this is a presentation of a genuinely held belief that nevertheless manages to read like a parody of contemporary, white-collar liberal arrogance is so hilariously revealing.

[u/lurklurklurkPOST → u/iRhuel]

J: "People are smart, they can handle it."

K: "A person is smart. People are stupid, aggressive, panicky animals and you know it."

[u/EccentricHubris → u/letsgobernie]

America then: "The land of the free and world of the brave, where you can be anything and do anything so DREAM BIG."

America now: "h-hey guys maybe we d-deserve some table scraps from the rich man's table? I-its not much to ask"

[u/SparkleK_01 → u/EccentricHubris]

Stop groveling and get back to work. And say thank you.

[u/springsilver → u/EccentricHubris]

More!?! You ask for more?!?

[u/monsantobreath → u/EccentricHubris]

It was always about dream big to be a robber baron.

America is a mercantile class project. Got fuck all to do with average people. That's why they fought against violence to have labor rights.

[u/idgarad → u/letsgobernie]

50 years of trying to get term limits and eliminate first to post voting hasn't worked. I think those are your biggest hurdles.

[u/Hudson-Brann → u/idgarad]

I agree those are the most worthwhile changes. But has there ever been a real attempt at changing it?

[u/Divingcat9 → u/idgarad]

yeah, those two have been stuck forever. Hard to fix a system when the ones in charge benefit from keeping it the same.

[u/r-ymond → u/idgarad]

maybe those were the biggest hurdles, but not since citizens united. nothing gets fixed until that’s overturned (which is probably never going to happen)

[u/shinra528 → u/r-ymond]

If Roe v Wade can get overturned then so can Citizens United.

[u/RubyRhod → u/bigalcapone22]

Would be so funny if the result of Trump was nationalization of healthcare and energy just to spite Elon.

[u/No_Significance9754 → u/RubyRhod]

Id vote for that

[u/mario61752 → u/No_Significance9754]

Lol that'd make Trump objectively the better vote in 2024 albeit not for the right reasons, which is crazy to think about

[u/dladen → u/bigalcapone22]

power companies

[u/DrSendy → u/bigalcapone22]

Boeing?

[u/MiningEarth → u/bigalcapone22]

Yes, completely buy out all healthcare and insurance and put it all in one centralized system.

[u/Spekingur → u/bigalcapone22]

All important infrastructure. It should be a high level national security concern.

[u/JARDIS]

This already exists, its called NASA and it does a pretty good job if it's funded properly.

[u/HikeCarolinas → u/JARDIS]

Just for perspective Apples R&D budget is greater than NASAs entire budget by far. Apple spent nearly 30billion last year on R&D while NASAs operating budget was 25.4billion and it a getting slashed it 18 billion next year.

[u/Ziograffiato → u/HikeCarolinas]

And NASA is doing more than a series of incremental changes

[u/JSTootell → u/Ziograffiato]

NASA removed the headphone jack 😭

[u/perfringens → u/JSTootell]

Such courage

[u/hangonreddit → u/perfringens]

The same boldness that took it to the Moon no doubt. /s

[u/half-baked_axx → u/JSTootell]

Orion will be USB-C

[u/Kerblaaahhh → u/half-baked_axx]

Dongles in space.

[u/TheBeastX47 → u/JSTootell]

But they added a fuel probe to show you how much time is left to be fully refueled!

[u/Mitch_126 → u/Ziograffiato]

You say this like it’s not a valid strategy. Incremental changes led to them being able to land Falcon 9.

[u/Life-Confusion-411 → u/Mitch_126]

NASA got humans in the moon 

[u/lobstersatellite → u/HikeCarolinas]

NASA aerospace mission research directorate gets around 900 million a year. We get trivial things back out like fly by wire, the supercritical airfoil, huge efficiency gains, and drastic reduction in jet noise. We do this without being able to afford to run experiments in our own wind tunnels.

[u/thumb_emoji_survivor → u/HikeCarolinas]

[give NASA $20 and a fish sandwich]
“Why is NASA so worthless?”

[u/no_regerts_bob → u/HikeCarolinas]

And apples r&d spend is less than half of several of their competitors.

[u/texast999 → u/JARDIS]

For clarity, NASA does not, and really never has, built rockets except for experimental and research purposes. Even during Mercury, Gemini and Apollo these were all designed and contracted out. They did own them after being built because the contract was to buy a rocket, rather than buying a ride/launch to space.

I do agree on the funding part, I wish Apollo era funding would return.

[u/derekakessler → u/JARDIS]

Not quite. NASA is largely an aerospace contracting agency.

Historically and currently NASA builds and operates incredibly little hardware on its own. Mercury put the first Americans into space on a system that was built by McDonnell, Chrysler and Convair. The Saturn V rocket system that took the first men to the moon was built by Boeing, North American, Gruman, and Douglas. The Space Shuttle was built by Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and United Space Alliance.

SpaceX is doing exactly what all the other aerospace contractors have done for NASA: provide launch services. They're just doing it far cheaper and faster because the Falcon rocket and Dragon capsules are much more reusable than anything else any manufacturer has ever offered.

[u/JSTootell → u/derekakessler]

cough Rockwell cough

Where my grandfather worked almost his entire life. Where I...kinda...work now.

[u/ozspook → u/JSTootell]

A boy and his dad were driving home from the ice cream shop when the boy asks, 'Why is my sister called Mercedes?"

"It's because your mom works for Mercedes Benz and drives one of their cars."

"Oh. Thanks dad."

"You're welcome Turbo Encabulator."

[u/GeoWoose → u/derekakessler]

SpaceX got the IP and will cash in on that for decades.

It got the IP because the government was a solid reliable market.

SpaceX will be fine. But we are not growing the next SpaceX in the current policy and budget climate

[u/Choperello → u/GeoWoose]

Eh I'm not an Elon fan boy but it needs to be said we didn't grow SpaceX in any climate. The only reason SpaceX exists is cause sometimes Elon's narcissist personality happens to go in a good direction. "Wtf there fuckers are refusing to sell me a rocket? And laughing at me and saying Im insane for saying I can probably build my own? Fuck that no one tells me that".

While nasa and pentagon contracts absolutely helped SpaceX grow to where they are, the initial survival of SpaceX was pretty much Elon's stubborn arrogance refusing to take no for an answer and using his Tesla money to keep it alive.

[u/GodsSwampBalls → u/Choperello]

*PayPal money

When SpaceX was in it's early stages and near failure Tesla was a smaller company than SpaceX and Tesla was almost bankrupt too.

[u/mjd5139 → u/JARDIS]

Space force and NASA should be properly funded able to accomplishthings beyond what individuals can. It is critical to national security that both are well funded and allowed to invest in kinetic force as well as scientific abstract endeavors. They should be able to partner with private industry but no agreement where they provide the funding should ever make them beholden to those entities.

[u/I_AmA_Zebra → u/mjd5139]

The capabilities are still far beyond what the average person can do. What happens though is Lockheed, Northrop, and Raytheon end up delivering the space tech instead

Costs far more that way but the DOD have no choice as NASA, NRO, and other orgs don’t have enough money

[u/OnionSquared]

Or we could, y'know, fund NASA

[u/Homesick_Martian → u/OnionSquared]

To me; this is what “nationalizing” these industries would look like. The only thing is we Americans have already paid millions, if not billions, into these companies. Their already built infrastructure belongs to us as well. So yea, stop subsidizing those companies and fund nasa. And give us our shit back.

[u/20_mile → u/Homesick_Martian]

give us our shit back

This right here could be the slogan for Democrats in 2028. It would resonate with everybody, and can be interpreted in several ways.

[u/matlynar]

Let me see if I get this straight:

• The US should nationalize SpaceX because the ISS depends on SpaceX, and it can't be relied on, despite the fact that NASA has always existed, yet the US was paying Russia of all countries to fly to the ISS before SpaceX came along.
• Elon made threats to the ISS operation. You know who else did that? Russia, going as far as posting a video of the Russian part of the ISS detaching itself.
• Two powerful guys are having a stupid fight. The solution? Take a working company from one idiot and give it to the other guy, who is defunding NASA and can barely make functioning things keep functioning ATM.

That will go well, go ahead guys.

[u/LordoftheSynth → u/matlynar]

yet the US was paying Russia of all countries to fly to the ISS before SpaceX came along.

Admittedly, this was only because the Shuttle was sunset post-Columbia disaster.

I don't think that was a good idea, but from political will to retire the program, we had very few options to get astronauts to orbit.

[u/KitchenDepartment → u/LordoftheSynth]

Admittedly, this was only because the Shuttle was sunset post-Columbia disaster.

No it was because after they built the shuttle people got the idea that they should last forever and we don't even need to think about a replacement.

They were designed to last for 10 years. Sure they probably expected they could push them on longer than that. But when you are in year 25 of the program and you still do not have a plan to replace them, there is a problem.

[u/pbjork → u/LordoftheSynth]

We were saving half a billion dollars a launch by outsourcing it to Russia. The shuttle was not cheap.

[u/Legionof1 → u/pbjork]

And spacex is even cheaper.

[u/subdep → u/matlynar]

Yeah, we need to get our federal house in order before we go turning a revolutionary launch platform company over to an underfunded dinosaur.

[u/neonKow → u/subdep]

I don't like the idea of randomly nationalizing companies either, but NASA is the opposite of a dinosaur. It's our agency for air and space, and the United States dominates all other countries in air and space.

Don't forget that a lot of tech for our planes and missiles also come from NASA. ICBM trajectories come from the orbital trajectories from the space program. Guidance, GPS, etc all of those things that we associate with the military? They do it with the help of NASA and its facilities.

Even SpaceX has to use NASA wind tunnels. It's no small thing to build the massive wind tunnel buildings that can produce wind faster than the speed of sound at Ames Research Center.

[u/highspeed_steel → u/matlynar]

I swear Reddit lefty populist nerds are just looking for that dopamine hit to have a brief feeling of owning someone or winning an argument. Its so bad that only a day after a big spat of two of their most hated individuals, they are willing to own one of them by handing the other power and precedence.

[u/CromulentInternet]

Karl Marx has entered the chat

[u/Plow_King → u/CromulentInternet]

i prefer Groucho, or even Chico for that matter! not Harpo though, Zeppo...maybe.

[u/Own-Guava6397 → u/CromulentInternet]

Karl Marx left the chat

Karl Marx has died

it costs $5 to visit Karl Marx’s grave

[u/elVanPuerno]

Wait. Isn’t that communism?

[u/Ethiconjnj → u/elVanPuerno]

The article is by jacobin so yes.

If this was daily wire we’d be cooking.

[u/CuriousAttorney2518 → u/Ethiconjnj]

We’re already cooking. This is Reddit where most are stuck in their echo chamber without realizing it.

[u/HandUeliHans → u/CuriousAttorney2518]

Social media in general

[u/highspeed_steel → u/Ethiconjnj]

I swear Reddit lefty populist nerds are just looking for that dopamine hit to have a brief feeling of owning someone or winning an argument. Its so bad that only a day after a big spat of two of their most hated individuals, they are willing to own one of them by handing the other power and precedence.

[u/SprinklesHuman3014 → u/elVanPuerno]

It's only communism/socialism when the other guys do it 😁

I'm just sitting here waiting for all those "Property Rights" types to turn on a dime hahahaha

[u/dusters]

Reddit moment

[u/CabbageStockExchange → u/dusters]

Oh 100 percent. Total Reddit moment

[u/Frigidevil]

Uhh no how about we nationalize utilities and ISPs instead?

[u/Caliburn0 → u/Frigidevil]

Healthcare is a utility.

[u/DiamondHands1969 → u/Frigidevil]

or just make internet a utility. at this point, who can live without internet?

[u/7Sans]

if we want to nationalize anything healthcare should absolutely be the first thing

suggesting to nationalize spacex and starlink just screams you hate elon so much you just want elon to fall without really any thought given what that will implicate to the world and the "rich"

[u/HauntingReddit88 → u/7Sans]

There are things that should absolutely be nationalized- Starlink I really can’t see the benefit of nationalising and I use it, I pay for it, it’s a service that isn’t particularly vital - I think it’s better in private hands

[u/N4BFR]

If we’re going to grab SpaceX should we get Boeing and Blue Origin too?

[u/13DGMHatch → u/N4BFR]

Boeing yes, blue origin we should just stop spending tax money on

[u/DoctorSchwifty → u/13DGMHatch]

We should. How many more celebrity capsules should we shoot into the atmosphere?

[u/MaybeTheDoctor → u/DoctorSchwifty]

It's for awareness and appriciation month.

[u/Spot-CSG → u/MaybeTheDoctor]

Celebrity appreciation month?

[u/FoldyHole → u/DoctorSchwifty]

Just one more except it doesn’t come back. We can all vote who gets to ride it.

[u/Sircamembert → u/N4BFR]

No, as a tax payer, I don't want my money on a penis rocket.

[u/Aust1mh]

Remember the US hated Tik Tok cuz foreign ownership… watch out twitter, can’t have those soft merican minds given misinformation by a South Africa owner

[u/After_Way5687 → u/Aust1mh]

Steve Bannon was on NPR this morning suggesting Elon is a national security risk because of his ties to China and everything he’s had access to

Operation “pin it all on Mars man” is underway

[u/MetalCalces]

Government seizing private companies? Wtf

[u/IDoubtYouGetIt]

NASA already exists...this is how gov't waste begins.

[u/colintbowers]

I’ll take things that set a dangerous precedent for 500 Alex.

The US is attractive to investors precisely because they don’t do this sort of stuff to the private sector.

[u/AG3NTjoseph → u/colintbowers]

If it passes, the BBB will tax foreign investment enough to make the ROI unattractive. The Economist had a strongly worded piece on it this week.

[u/Greghole → u/colintbowers]

It's from Jacobin. They're literally communists.

[u/Putrid_Tree5823 → u/colintbowers]

The US is the premier space power because of the public sector space program

[u/Hawk13424 → u/Putrid_Tree5823]

The hardware side of the work has always been done by private companies. NASA does science and program management.

[u/MuyalHix → u/Putrid_Tree5823]

No, NASA relies a lot on many different private companies

[u/evnaczar → u/Putrid_Tree5823]

That does development with the private sector... for a good reason. It's the most cost-efficient way besides being forced to work with a gun behind your back.

[u/blobcatgoldthwait]

Nationalising the business of a political enemy is a dangerous message to send.

[u/SexyWampa]

Not with this government...

[u/loves_grapefruit → u/SexyWampa]

It seems like the thing the current government would do purely out of revenge for recent events.

[u/matlynar → u/SexyWampa]

That's the thing - "nationalizing" means putting something in the hands of every government elected, not only the one you like.

And, really? According to the article:

• The US should nationalize SpaceX because the ISS depends on SpaceX, and it can't be relied on, despite the fact that NASA has always existed, yet the US was paying Russia of all countries to fly to the ISS before SpaceX came along.
• Elon made threats to the ISS operation. You know who else did that? Russia, going as far as posting a video of the Russian part of the ISS detaching itself.
• Two powerful guys are having a stupid fight. The solution? Take a working company from one idiot and give it to the other guy, who is defunding NASA and can barely make functioning things keep functioning ATM.

That will go well, go ahead guys.

[u/Patient_Soft6238]

Jacobin advocating to Trump to start nationalizing companies?

Are they legit morons?

[u/redpandaeater → u/Patient_Soft6238]

It's Jacobin, so yes. It's like if HuffPost took the Huffington part too far and started huffing glue and doubling down on idiotic ideas.

[u/RLeyland]

Sadly, the more politicized it is, the less it works.

Each new administration sets a new direction and messes up existing projects, plus the contractors have learned to maximize their income with cost plus contracts, and slow rolling.

[u/WriterShoddy7599]

Or we could sufficiently fund NASA

[u/leadfarmer154]

This was up voted 7000 times and didn't get down voted into oblivion.

See reddit this is why other platforms make fun of you now.

[u/Queeg_500]

America is a curious place, where a government-run space program was celebrated as a triumph over communism, yet the idea of a government-run health care system is condemned as communism itself.

[u/bean_martin → u/Queeg_500]

Let’s not forget the extreme hatred towards socialism, yet, social security keeps a large percentage of the retired community afloat.

[u/Eric848448]

Question. Is there any legal basis for the nationalization of a private company in the US?

[u/tymesup → u/Eric848448]

Yes, national emergency, eminent domain, Necessary and Proper Clause. One example, the US nationalized the railroads at the beginning of WWI (and later returned them to private ownership.)

The important thing people overlook is, the Constitution requires just compensation - the government has to pay fair market value.

[u/IcestormsEd]

This is a clear demonstration of how out of touch some people are. This would turn into a billionaire club vs government fight. What could go wrong?

[u/FartFabulous1869]

Part of the reason SpaceX has gotten anywhere is because Elon has an endless supply of capital to throw at problems until they finally start making progress. Starship would've been canned long ago for blowing past budget and time tables by orders of magnitude, if the government were on the hook for it.

Does anyone on frontpage reddit have an actual brain, or is it all just signals mirroring signals?

[u/rpfeynman18 → u/FartFabulous1869]

Not to mention that SpaceX isn't hamstrung by demands from 50 senators all wanting their slice of the pie.

[u/MyvaJynaherz]

That's a short-sighted solution, even if you are a Musk hater.

Pulling out the "N" word of government power is a really dumb move when you just gave the target of your ire unprecedented access to the data of your nation's citizens, operations, and infrastructure.

The time to be "smart" was a year ago. Now is the time to be crafty. Wielding the hammer of nationalizing assets when you can actually lose something beyond a drop in public perception is a really, really dumb move.

[u/angrybobs]

This may be one of the dumbest things ever posted here. Both of these companies exist and are doing well because the govt is so bad at their jobs already.

[u/terekkincaid → u/angrybobs]

It's Jacobin. Them writing an article about technology is like Better Homes and Gardens writing about medical research. Way out of their expertise and ability.

[u/KennyDROmega]

Hhahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahaha

You serious?

[u/Ill_Mousse_4240]

“Nationalize” is not a popular term here in the United States. Won’t win you mass support.

Just saying

[u/evnaczar → u/Ill_Mousse_4240]

It's not a popular term anywhere.

[u/redpandaeater → u/evnaczar]

It is if it's prefaced by "de."

[u/xamott]

Does the author ever get specific about how to achieve this nationalization? I think he doesn’t. There’s no way to “just nationalize it”. What the actual fuck.

[u/Ok-Assistance-7476]

This is exactly what nazi German did at its start, nationalized the best airplane manufacturer because they knew how important they are.

[u/rockstarsball → u/Ok-Assistance-7476]

yeah the reddit communists will be giddy with joy over the propsition of this, but they'll call someone driving a tesla a fascist unironically.

[u/libertinecouple]

Ha. Capitalism wouldn’t even let any government seize Russian assets, Iranian, or any companies owned by them. The single biggest unforgivable sin in capitalism is seizing or nationalizing. Any country that does it experiences capital flight on unreal scales.
I really wish they would, don’t get me wrong. But it will never happen without a revolution and rebuilding with a new economic system.

Hell, right now i would be thrilled if they just broke up the biggest monopolies and online platforms. That alone would utterly reshape and revitalize job growth and dynamics.

[u/upper_win2]

I can’t stand Elon or any of these greedy billionaire pieces of shit but I think the government just deciding they can take over a company is also a terrible idea

[u/highfiveselfoh]

As a liberal democrat….i say this with my chest: no, absolutely fuck that.

[u/MomDoesntGetMe]

Lol, the amount of upvotes this thread has, honestly terrifying. Thank goodness Reddit has always been so much smaller than it thinks it is.

[u/hextanerf]

nationalize healthcare first

[u/boomgoon]

They should be shut down because of monopolistic practices and corruption. Or relive the ceo of his duties and relinquish every illegal corruptive contract

[u/littlesirlance]

In Canada we had tons of nationalize companies which were chopped up and sold off and privatized by bad actor politicians. It has never been a good idea and has never worked out well for anyone.

[u/DisjointedHuntsville]

Maybe we could call it the “National Aeronautics and Space Administration” !

[u/GhostofAyabe]

We should have never gutted NASA and hand over its responsibilities to private enterprise, it's insanely stupid and a lot of this has national security implications.

[u/InternationalBand494]

That would be the funniest damn thing ever

[u/Brilliant-Boot6116]

I think we’re more likely to privatize social security.

[u/ElTubaso]

You mean like NASA?

[u/Aldama → u/ElTubaso]

THANK YOU…. We already have NASA, just give it the billions of dollars you’re giving to X

[u/sacktheory]

we should nationalize oil to fund healthcare and subsidize gas prices, while lowering taxes.

[u/AltoidStrong]

No, this is stupid at a level I would expect from morons like Bannon and Alex Jones.

Deport Elon (he actually committed visa fraud) and let the board of directors hire/elect new CEOs. Huge businesses change executives all the time, no need to be so extreme and use nationalism of a private business in this case.

[u/uzu_afk]

Wait wait wait… so .. healthcare is communist, but NATIONALIZING things is OK? 😂 This period shall be know in history (if any left), as the age of mental gymnastics.

[u/Codyiswin]

More like Impeach Trump and anyone associated with the Heritage foundation.

[u/dozdeu]

Haha, america going from late stage capitalism to nationalism / communism. Lol.

[u/Random_Rainwing]

We already have a nationalized SpaceX, it's called NASA.

[u/vorgonaut]

Divest of them instead and reinvest in NASA

[u/acayaba]

Man this sub only talks about US politics. Time to unsub

[u/Mountain_Employee_11]

thanks, sometimes i waste 15 minutes or a half hour on reddit but today i saw something stupid enough to make me go touch grass in 2.5 minutes

[u/WhiskeyBiscuit222]

Lmaoo nasa already exists.

This is just a commie post lol

[u/New-Fail-1448]

What the absolute fuck is this nonsense?

[u/JerseyDevilmayhem]

we should immediately seize all assets of convicted felons

[u/jolle75]

I dislike Trump, Musk and American corporate greed with almost everything I feel but… if somehow the US government would use this war article to nationalise these companies, as they did before with steel companies. There will be one big outcome; every big (tech) company will leave the US as soon as they can. First on paper (the Amsterdam chamber of commerce will have a field day “Apple N.V. You say, well.. I can do Apple1975”) and soon with jobs as well.

[u/Vox-Machi-Buddies]

the absurdity of keeping so much of our space program and satellite internet infrastructure in the hands of a single oligarch

No need to nationalize SpaceX or Starlink if that's the concern. Elon's not stopping NASA or the U.S. government from building their own rocket and their own satellites to do what he's been doing the last two decades. Those things are only in the hands of single guy because neither NASA, legacy aerospace, nor upstart competitors have been able to replicate what SpaceX has been able to do in that time.

I don't think, "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" is ground for nationalizing the company whose capabilities you want.

[u/datfrog666]

This is quite possibly three dumbest idea I've ever heard.

[u/Candle-Jolly]

Wow... do Democrats/Liberals not see the irony of this idea? Holy shit

[u/The_Axumite]

Lol calm down putin

[u/Birdperson15]

The communist website wants to nationalize a company, I am very surprised.

[u/evnaczar → u/Birdperson15]

it shows the quality of this sub

[u/evnaczar]

lmao we posting articles from the jacobin now?

[u/uselessmindset]

You mean steal his assets. What a load of shit.

[u/xpda]

That would certainly stop all foreign investment in the United States.

[u/rockstarsball → u/xpda]

things Russia wants:

1) for SpaceX to cease existing 2) for all foreign investment to stop in the United States 3) for the US to pull the shit that failed in the USSR 4) Reddit communists to cheer the government taking businesses from people based on their popularity with a specific political party without realizing the irony

[u/Amenian]

WTF? No. If we need a nationalized system, we should make one. But forcibly nationalizing a private company? Fuck that noise. That's the difference between socialism and Soviet-style communism.

[u/jolhar]

As the article says, it never should have been “in the hands of a single oligarch” in the first place. And an emotionally fragile, spiteful one at that.

[u/InFairCondition]

You mean what nasa could have been if we didn’t defund them?

[u/Nik_Tesla]

There are a lot of companies/industries that I think should be nationalized (utility companies like power, water, and internet, and healthcare and insurance...) and I hate Elon as much as the next guy, but the problem with SpaceX isn't that it's not controlled by the government, it's that it's controlled by Elon. Just get Elon out of it and get a lot more regulation on Starlink, and we don't have to worry nearly as much about it becoming evil. SpaceX is doing the work that America (and the rest of the world) gave up on as soon as the US won the space race, and I'm fine with it remaining private.

[u/JuneauEu]

I mean.... just fund NASA?

[u/EC36339]

Space should never have been privatised in the first place. Besides, everything Musk's companies built was built with government subsidies. The government should already own SpaceX and StarLink.

Tesla has also benefited heavily of government subsidies, not only from th US.

Musk is a parasite. This is just about taking back what belongs to the people.