At this point the government just needs to sue Boeing into bankruptcy. They cannot be allowed to continue to gamble with others’ lives while taking taxpayer money
this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2024
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The need to seize the company. Boeing holds too many military contracts to be allowed to die. They build planes for the military, so they’ll get an inevitable bailout.
Instead, the government should start seizing parts of the company as part of the bailout. “Oh hey, we paid you all this money, so we own these parts of the company now. Shareholders have been fairly compensated for it by the bailout money, so you can’t say it’s unfair. You have proven that your leadership is lacking and you can’t be allowed to operate without oversight. So now that we own large swaths of the company, we’ll be making lots of the big decisions.”
Nationalize Boeing now
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…to the surprise of absolutely no one.
This wouldn't be a problem if we still had NASA doing the shuttle program, or some continuation of it, rather than outsourcing our spacecraft to the cutthroat lowest-bidder private sector. Is it really any surprise that SpaceX and Boeing are blowing up on the launchpads and having quality control issues when their sole objective is to make money? If we nationalized these initiatives again and cancelled the private contracts with these crooks, there would be no incentive for profiteering and corners would not get cut as often as they do now.
Sure, it would be a big cost to the taxpayer once again, but I think I'd rather have a reliable space program and like 2% less military budget to fund it, I think we'll manage somehow without producing more tanks and planes that nobody is asking for.
Who do you think built the shuttle...?
Also, not defending the Musk shitstain, but focusing on "blowing up launch pads" tells me you probably know very little about the Space industry or development.
but focusing on “blowing up launch pads” tells me you probably know very little about the Space industry or development.
That wasn't the focus of my post, but are you suggesting that there is a nonzero number of rocket explosions that would be considered acceptable?
I don't need to be Elon Musk, or even know much about the space industry or development to know that the target number should always be zero.
but are you suggesting that there is a nonzero number of rocket explosions that would be considered acceptable?
....yes? During development specifically. Of course there is.
Let me know how that interview goes, because if the rocket you developed and spent billions of dollars building explodes at launch, you're going to be looking for a new line of work.
I'm sure the next aeronautics company will totally understand. Mondays, am I right?
See, I'm not trying to be a jerk, but you keep showing more and more that you're not following what's happening in the launch business at all.
So for coming up on 10 years now, SpaceX has been absolutely kicking everyone's ass. China is now coming up on being second.
They're following processes of rapid iteration. During design, they build quickly (and relatively cheaply). They launch frequently. Those launches may not go perfectly. Sometimes they explode. But they get a LOT of data. This helps them iterate quickly.
This is different from what Boeing, Blue Origin, etc have been doing (and at different points, at NASA's direction) - the "try to build it slow but steady, and perfect the first time" method. Guess what? That has been working horribly. It takes way way longer, costs way way more, etc. And they've left the door open for SpaceX to take over. They're quickly becoming the ONLY game in town. And neither they nor, say, Blue Origin have really been focused that much on profit.
Rapid Iteration is also what we did early on in the space program. A lot of stuff failed (blew up) but we were making REALLY rapid progress.
Now - once the rockets go into production, they absolutely CAN'T blow up. ESPECIALLY with people inside. That's a totally different thing.
SpaceX just lost had their first operation failure in like a decade. After hundreds of successful launches. It's the best record I believe any rocket series has ever had.
You also picked tbe Shuttle as an example of things working well. It's ironic - that's specifically when everything started turning to shit - massive cost overruns, massive, years-long project delays. The delays for manned spaceflight, for launch systems, were a brand new thing starting with STS.
Blowing shit up is absolutely a valid part of the learning/development phase of rocket design.
Okay, you've made some pretty salient points. I'm not too proud to admit that my understanding of the topic is limited. I appreciate you taking the time to educate me more on the subject.
Man, this has been a nice day full of niceness. It's just...nice.
Have a good weekend, furbag. You're a classy dude/ette.
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This wouldn't be a problem if we still had NASA doing the shuttle program, or some continuation of it, rather than outsourcing our spacecraft to the cutthroat lowest-bidder private sector.
While I like the sentiment, you should know that you are absolutely, completely, 100% wrong.
The space shuttle was the deadliest spacecraft in human history, not just in the US, but in the entire world. And mind you, NASA spacecrafts are all also quite literally built from parts delivered by the lowest bidder.
For the record Boeing sucks and is doing a pretty crappy job right now, but regardless, it would be safer to launch on the Starliner 20 times in a row than to ride in the space shuttle once. At least the Starliner has a launch escape system.
I followed the Space Shuttle program pretty heavily as a kid and got to see a few launches from the Cape.
Truly loved the innovative look and the futuristic (lol, at the time) feel.
In retrospect, it was a good try with bad funding, and an exceptionally expensive satellite positioner that never lived up to its promised turn around time.
I loved it, but it kind of was an objective flop.
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The US is just collapsing everywhere. What a time to be alive.
Well Boeing is just overall imploding...
Boeing is just a symptom of the rampant corporate greed and irresponsibility that modern MBAs teach as part of normal daily operations.
It affects everyone, makes everyone less safe and less secure. Enshittification on a world scale brought to you by Next Quarter Only bottom line capitalism.
But the powers that be are fine with it for now, mainly because of class war.
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Didn't two Chinese rockets just blow up a couple months ago? I don't think a couple specific aerospace examples on the cutting edge are indicative of broader issues lol
Is this “whataboutism”?
Boeing has a track record of shoddy work. As the crown jewel of US manufacturing and the largest exporter, the cumulative failures over the past years are indicative of systemic failures in the US system.
Perhaps there would be less pushback if you heard it from an American?
Boeing Is Everything Wrong With American Capitalism | Robert Reich
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literally every post I see from lemm.ee users is hot trash. Can we please defederate them?
I don’t think that’s a fair assessment, everything people have built up to now relies on a significantly greater amount of complexity. There is a lot which works well and is held together by hardworking, unsung normal everyday folks, but you don’t make the national news for getting shit done or keeping stuff functional.
That said, yeah the bean counters have fucking ruined engineering firms, and it’s a story which repeats itself over and over. There’s also the issue of nepo babies or “I know this person” incest in a lot of places where qualified people are passed over for someone “you know”. The nepotism and cronyism phenomenon is a huge problem for many institutions, not just engineering firms. Nepotism and cronyism is not just an American issue, it’s something you see everywhere.
Regarding unqualified people, I do think maybe standards should be raised for entry into some college programs. But the only way raising standards would make sense if we significantly invest in public education. In short, a lot of “breaking” of America is the direct result of short sighted Republican policies.
Boeing shifted production to break the Seattle unions. That's been a sound financial decision so far...except for all of the failures and dead people.
Gotta keep those shareholders happy!
Every company is trying for the most unqualified workforce these days… but at least most of them don’t involve flight.
Unbridled capitalism sucks ass.
Every form of capitalism becomes unbridled as concentration of wealth allow exploiters to engage in regulatory capture and bribery.
It's only a matter of time.
There is no 'good' capitalism, it is ALL the exploitation of the less powerful.
imagine we find out Boeing really did build that submersible
Boeing was one of my accounts back before the pandemic. I had to respond to RFPs where my employer sold services to Boeing. They sucked to work with and just didn't understand really basic things about the services they were requesting in their own RFPs.
Disney and Walmart on the other hand were great. They were not pushovers, but they were consistently friendly, and they always knew their shit.
Gotta pad those CEO bonuses somehow!
C'mon man, you know that 40 million dollar sign in bonus is absolutely necessary to get at least your garage and kitchen in order when you move.
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