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.
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.