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IsayNigel t1_j2z8t3k wrote

Reply to comment by jivatman in NASA planetary science budget remains under stress by Lolbitable

Lmao “oh that part doesn’t count because I don’t want it to”. Hundreds of millions of dollars, to say nothing of the billions in other subsidies musk’s companies have gotten. I guess we won’t talk about the part where he lied about that though right?

The US will never go to war with China over taiwan, to suggest anything otherwise is absurd

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jivatman t1_j320bp1 wrote

If there's one takeaway I'd like you to have from this conversation, it's that being the lowest bidder in competitive, fixed price contracts is a very different thing from a subsidy.

Because subsidies actually do exist. So do cost-plus contracts, which, without oversight, actually are similar to subsidies.

These are important, basic principles of how the government spends money. Lack of understanding them is ultimately an impediment to having a cost effective government.

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jivatman t1_j2zaq1j wrote

Bro, SpaceX sells the dishes at a loss. The Verge and other outlets have done teardowns to confirm this. And USAID says all they did was buy dishes.

If by "subsidies' you mean being the lowest bidder in competitive bidding... and therefore actually saving the government money compared to competitors in all SpaceX's contracts, that's a pretty weird definition of 'subsidy'.

Sitting back and letting China take Taiwan without defending them seems like a bad idea, but I admit that predicting what US political leaders might do in response is pretty hard.

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