Private sector was heavily involved in it. It feels like we’re going to strange lenghts to dedicate achievements to one system and to deny them from the other. Capitalist US got to the moon, socialist USSR did other amazing space achievements. If anything to me it seems like neither should get the credit. Give it to the countries who made them happen and the people behind the projects instead of economic systems.
And it’s not like getting to space was some feature of either system, rather just result of US and USSR having a massive rivalry about it. You could’ve had that between two capitalist or socialist countries with the same result.
I mean, the private sector was by needs involved, because a space program requires industrial supply chains, and those were mostly private. They never would have achieved it without collective, government action. (Even SpaceX only exists because of NASA.) Saying that “capitalism did it,” when it manifestly did not, because of oversimplifications like “capitalist US” is misleading. At best, capitalist in that use is synecdoche. At worst, it’s political woo woo, since the US is far from pure capitalism.
In capitalism those supply chains are most often filled by private sector. Government still does stuff in most capitalist systems and is involved in the economy. It’s not not capitalism when the government does stuff.
the US is far from pure capitalism
This is an interesting reversal of how this discussion usually goes. But there’s no “pure capitalism”. Capitalism is a massive spectrum.
It’s kinda hard to give credit to capitalism for that when it couldn’t have happened without heavy government involvement.
Private sector was heavily involved in it. It feels like we’re going to strange lenghts to dedicate achievements to one system and to deny them from the other. Capitalist US got to the moon, socialist USSR did other amazing space achievements. If anything to me it seems like neither should get the credit. Give it to the countries who made them happen and the people behind the projects instead of economic systems.
Yeah, I agree with this take honestly.
If you credit solely Capitalism for getting to the moon, then you have to solely credit socialism for getting to space.
And it’s not like getting to space was some feature of either system, rather just result of US and USSR having a massive rivalry about it. You could’ve had that between two capitalist or socialist countries with the same result.
I mean, the private sector was by needs involved, because a space program requires industrial supply chains, and those were mostly private. They never would have achieved it without collective, government action. (Even SpaceX only exists because of NASA.) Saying that “capitalism did it,” when it manifestly did not, because of oversimplifications like “capitalist US” is misleading. At best, capitalist in that use is synecdoche. At worst, it’s political woo woo, since the US is far from pure capitalism.
In capitalism those supply chains are most often filled by private sector. Government still does stuff in most capitalist systems and is involved in the economy. It’s not not capitalism when the government does stuff.
This is an interesting reversal of how this discussion usually goes. But there’s no “pure capitalism”. Capitalism is a massive spectrum.