points by happytoexplain 2 days ago | 0 comments
The suggestion is not that the number of satellites certainly would be fewer in any representative government, but rather that ours is not fully representative, and if it were, the number would probably be fewer.
I'm not agreeing necessarily - it's honestly hard to say. There are a lot of pros and cons to convince the electorate of. But there is certainly the simple universal problem of money putting a thumb on the scale in representative governments.
I 100% agree that there's a problem of money putting a thumb on the scale. But I don't understand why that would even be relevant here. As far a I've seen (I'm not an expert but I have been following SpaceX since before they put anything into orbit) there has been no undue political influence in getting Starlink authorization to launch their constellation. We live in a system where things are permitted by default. There's no reason for the FAA or the FCC or whatever other regulatory bodies to deny it. Musk is gleefully using his money to put his thumb on the scale in other areas (spending nine figures in the recent elections is obscene) but why would he even have bothered here?