[madaxe_again]

The affordability isn’t relevant - in fact, the lack of affordability is pretty much the point. SLS is a jobs program, pork barrel spending to keep the MIC contractors and the voters who are dependent upon them sweet. The more it costs, the better it plays in whatever Poughkeepsies or Peorias they make the gold-plated doohickeys in.

[dralley]

So cancel it and tell said MIC companies to build something we actually need, like missiles.

[p_l]

From what I recall reading of some histories of similar messing (including Shuttle), sometimes obvious culprits at MIC wouldn't mind getting a more sensible order... but the senator X and Y are interested in how many "jobs created" will show up for their reelection campaign.

[irrational]

Or a federal free insulin plant. How much would it cost to manufacture and give free insulin to everyone that needs it compared to the cost for SLS?

[inetknght]

> Or a federal free insulin plant.

It's not just jobs. It's also relevant to US interests to keep industry skills sharp. Manufacturing insulin doesn't require the same skills that manufacturing a rocket requires.

On the flip side: if the skills are so expensive that private commercial entities are doing it for one or two orders of magnitude cheaper then it's arguable that the skills being paid to be kept sharp aren't really so sharp as they're paid to be. That is: at this price, why can't they deliver while private commercial entities can for cheaper?

So it's almost certainly just for the jobs and not really for the skills then.

[wkat4242]

> That is: at this price, why can't they deliver while private commercial entities can for cheaper?

The contractors making the SLS are private commercial entities. That's the mad thing about it.

[foobarian]

> private commercial entities can for cheaper?

Could be private commercial entities don't have to pay to train up the workforce but can just poach. Which is fine, system working as intended.

[martin8412]

Insulin costs around $30 when bought from the privately owned manufacturers. No point in having the government manufacture it.

[lazide]

Sounds like communism! /s

[westmeal]

I know you're joking but people actually believe this and will advocate for privatization of shit like this it's just so tiresome

[r00fus]

I mean, it's not like Hollywood hasn't spent nearly a century carrying water for the moneyed elites. The premise of so many movies hinges on the solution being some superhero or Ayn Rand-ian mold-breaker that can only happen with privatized super-tech.

We complain about China brainwashing its citizens when the US is the OG offender.

[lazide]

Hollywood has been taking a lot of money from China for a very long time now.