Except SpaceX is a defacto government program considering its funded by the COTS program (and other pork/favors) and its main customer is going to be the USG.
Also, the corruption works in SpaceX's favor. You have to be some blind free market type to believe that Musk isn't using the system for his benefit via the typical favor/donation system that rules Washington. Why would he leave the bed of gold we spin for him?
Space contractor in the US is a sweet gig, and Musk knows it. He's not going anywhere, especially over a over-politicized minor bump in the road such as this. This blog posting sells ad impressions and gives people their 2 minutes hate against $other_political_party, but to guys like Musk its meaningless and if it does have a cost, its washed up in the cost of doing business.
To be fair, the "blind free market types" are generally the ones who most freely acknowledge that he's using the system to his favor. The complaint is that the things that are being done in his favor are to the detriment of tax payers as, despite how awesome Space-X is, there could be other, better, cheaper programs still, if not for all the red tape.
Red tape as a corruption mechanism is there precisely to protect the incumbents. In this case Elon Musk is that incumbent. That's not a terribly prescient insight, nor is it particularly damning to free market enthusiasts, who are already well aware of this exploitation.
Also, the corruption works in SpaceX's favor. You have to be some blind free market type to believe that Musk isn't using the system for his benefit via the typical favor/donation system that rules Washington. Why would he leave the bed of gold we spin for him?
Space contractor in the US is a sweet gig, and Musk knows it. He's not going anywhere, especially over a over-politicized minor bump in the road such as this. This blog posting sells ad impressions and gives people their 2 minutes hate against $other_political_party, but to guys like Musk its meaningless and if it does have a cost, its washed up in the cost of doing business.