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komali2 • today at 3:34 PM • 0 replies • view on HN

> In a centralized system, they never would have developed reusability, because economics are not a consideration. And when you try and produce an end good where economics are not part of the consideration, even with success, you achieve failure.

You'd need evidence for this claim, because it's evidently false given the nationalized space program of the soviet union and the nationalized HSR program of the PRC both had cost optimizations built in. Also, the Soviet Union's wasn't entirely centralized, different design departments competed.

> they never would have developed reusability,

Space shuttle.

> However, keeping a profit incentive ensure proper allocation of resources and goals with economic fucundity

What's the profit incentive of a nuclear weapons program? Access to space is an assurance of sovereignty. There's no room for inefficient resource allocation mechanisms like profit incentive. See: Ukraine losing starlink internet because it made Elon mad somehow. In Taiwan we saw the writing on the wall for this when the digital minister briefly flirted with Starlink, which is why seeking a private option for non-submarine cable internet was abandoned in favor of investigating a nationalized one.