Congress has approved funding for NASA to work towards a manned
Mars mission!

However, it must use the SLS, not the more economical alternative of
the Starship from SpaceX. Without pork, Congress just couldn't find a
way to support it.

John Savard

On Thu, 25 Aug 2022 16:39:48 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc
<jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:

>Congress has approved funding for NASA to work towards a manned
>Mars mission!
>
>However, it must use the SLS, not the more economical alternative of
>the Starship from SpaceX. Without pork, Congress just couldn't find a
>way to support it.

That's the way it works -- you get support by doing what you must do
to get it.

And taking care of the locals by securing their jobs is an important
part of the congresscritter's job.
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."

On Monday, August 29, 2022 at 10:45:01 AM UTC-6, Paul S Person wrote:

> That's the way it works -- you get support by doing what you must do
> to get it.
>
> And taking care of the locals by securing their jobs is an important
> part of the congresscritter's job.

The problem with this is that it is a _positive feedback_ process; Representatives
and Senators who do this get re-elected, and thus gain more seniority, thus having
important committee positions.

In our system, there is negative feedback instead. If the Prime Minister directs
Cabinet to put too many projects in, say, Quebec, because it is strategic to his
party's re-election (political patronage, as opposed to pork-barrel politics), then
the rest of the country will become upset, and the other party will win the next
election. This is negative feedback, so we do not have a runaway increase in
political patronage analogous to a nuclear chain reaction.

John Savard

On Monday, August 29, 2022 at 2:24:46 PM UTC-4, Quadibloc wrote:
> On Monday, August 29, 2022 at 10:45:01 AM UTC-6, Paul S Person wrote:
>
> > That's the way it works -- you get support by doing what you must do
> > to get it.
> >
> > And taking care of the locals by securing their jobs is an important
> > part of the congresscritter's job.
> The problem with this is that it is a _positive feedback_ process; Representatives
> and Senators who do this get re-elected, and thus gain more seniority, thus having
> important committee positions.
>
> In our system, there is negative feedback instead. If the Prime Minister directs
> Cabinet to put too many projects in, say, Quebec, because it is strategic to his
> party's re-election (political patronage, as opposed to pork-barrel politics), then
> the rest of the country will become upset, and the other party will win the next
> election. This is negative feedback, so we do not have a runaway increase in
> political patronage analogous to a nuclear chain reaction.

SpaceX is getting a steadily increasing proportion of government contracts. Doing
the job for half (or less) of ULA's price makes even the most pork-favoring congress
have second thoughts.

pt