Wednesday, July 27, 2011

The Death of NASA

Thanks a lot, Barack. 

Our economy was already in the toilet, unemployment was through the roof, and you just had to go and crush American morale by ending the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and all the pride and glory with which it came. No, really -- thank you for doing that!

Sorry folks, but if history is here to instruct us, then we ought to be able to look into the past and realize that bureaucracy (government departments, administrations, and agencies) are rarely -- if ever -- more innovative and creative than their private sector counterparts. Consider the following image:

It's true. You can't deny it. If the government tried to create and regulate video game consoles, do you think we would have such remarkably fantastic gaming systems on which to spend our free time? Of course not. 

Why, you might ask, is that the case?

The answer is fairly simple. Incentives are the enzymes of innovation. And money is the human race's most basic form of incentive. In other words, money is what motivates and lays the foundation for cutting-edge new technological creations. 

Then it follows that bureaucrats are not the most fit group of individuals to develop new, breakthrough products. They get paid by the hour or the year at the same salary whether or not they create something marvelous. This is why the private sector has the obvious advantage. A private corporation's motives for innovation lie, as stated, in profit. Cold, hard, limitless cash. Private companies aren't paid set wages -- they reap what they sow. If their newly invented product revolutionizes the market, then they will certainly earn the incentive that motivated them from the start; the incentive that they so rightly deserve.

This, we can only hope, will boost American ingenuity and resolve to explore and travel into space. If competition within private industry can create a new space age for mankind, then perhaps the death of NASA is merely an intergalactic rebirth…

What do YOU think? Can the government innovate as effectively as private industry? How do you see the future of space travel in the US of A?

31 comments:

  1. maybe privatized space exploration will speed things up

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  2. I agree that government funded enterprises are bland and the opposite of innovative, many scientists and workers are disillusioned by same rate pay and the security of their position. A bit of competition in the space exploration field may be warranted :)
    As always, enlightening po$t.

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  3. Epic pic, bro. Following and $upporting!

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  4. Russia and China will dominate the space if the USA does not do something.

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  5. Well...
    You might wanna try googleing "every day military inovations" or something to that extent.
    Military is sponsored by the government, isn't it?

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  6. Privatization is the way to go I think.

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  7. Can we jump to conclusions now lol, What if the reason why the space shuttle project was stopped because they already hound what their looking for. What if the government is just hiding the fact that we actually have alien life forms on earth now :)

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  8. Haha, LegendsParody has a great point. How much info has the gov't censored from us? How much do they know and haven't told us?

    Private space industry sounds like it could become a disaster to me, I'd at least like the government to regulate safety and what not on any new innovations people could come up with

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  9. NASA's a weird issue to me. Note that I'm not American so I'm slightly less affected. I'm a sci bi buff, a transhumanist and more. I want humanity in space. Badly.

    On the other hand, NASA's been terrible.

    The problem with this privatization is its not really a that offers incentive to any rich company. Space isn't confirmed yet as having paying customers or the selection of materials found on earth. All it has is space, which I'm kind of hoping that in the next 20 years this'll be kicked off by say, declaring whoever gets their first gets that part of mars, finally kicking shit into gear for at least land to one day use.

    It's depressing though. NASA sucked, but deserved better.

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  10. Agree with "ready to grow".

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  11. Oh NASA... Their intentions were forever flawed, I think. I think ready to grow is right though, with companies like SpaceX out there, I suspect a massive boom in growth in the space industry.
    Tech Me

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  12. I wish that it would develop more instead of just being something that was a competition.

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  13. i just hope you americans get yoursleves back into space pretty quick.

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  14. These guys also get a huge budget dont they? Ireland here so not well versed on NASA but heard they get funded a fortune! Though I want this cheap privatised space travel so I can float about :(

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  15. I is a shame they are gone. But lets face it. They didn't do much after the moon.

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  16. You make good points, but some things shouldn't be private, and shouldn't be motivated by money, like the health industry. It is true that the main reason space hasn't been done as well as it is could is that there is very little, if no, profit to be made, and when you have to save money, you have to focus on profit. I hope that when the economy is better, then they will bring NASA back and kick the crap out of Mars, but if they don't, someone else will.

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  17. Don't forget that many private companies have developed new technologies in order to win lucrative government contracts. So, the argument can be made that government helps push innovation in some ways.

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  18. I for one, wouldn't play a government run console. The network would most likely be down 99% of the time.

    I enjoy your blog and will follow.

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  19. A government console wouldn't be a console.

    They would censor the crap out of it, and any games made for it that were offensive to anyone would have to be shut down.

    You make an excellent point which is very true - money makes the world turn round =3

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  20. the gov is never the same as private sector. if you have opponents you have to make some effort in your products to get better and sell more. if your the only one nowone cares...

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  21. i don't know how feasible mining or acquiring resources from other planets is but whoever succeeds in exploration will figure out how to benefit from the untapped resources that lay in wait.

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  22. Hahah, NASA, you better hurry the things up!

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  23. It is the death of the shuttle, not the space program in general. God, some of you guys are retarded. The shuttle was built only to beat the Russians, nothing else. It's like a dick size contest. We love those.

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  24. Its too bad about the whole NASA thing :/
    But hopefully something better rise from its ashes

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  25. We still have the possibility to go on over priced space travels for rich snobs. Hopefully that will be me one day...

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  26. Would you rather have had NASA to make a new space shuttle every year? Those vehicles are expensive.

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  27. Loving the blog..

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