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**AUGUST 30, 2023**

On the Prospect website

* John Farrell makes the case against private utilities
<[link removed]'s impulsive
weirdness and economic reach. But did you know that the Ukrainian
government, and thus the allied U.S. government, relies on Musk's
company SpaceX and its service Starlink for all battlefield
communications in the Russia-Ukraine war? And that top Pentagon
officials were reduced to begging the capricious Musk to cease cutting
field communications as his own views (and self-interests) regarding
Russia changed?

As Farrow writes, other tycoons throughout history have exercised
immense influence; some, such as J.P. Morgan, even encouraged the
government to rely on their private fortunes to support public policy.
But, says Farrow, "There is little precedent for a civilian's becoming
the arbiter of a war between nations in such a granular way, or for the
degree of dependency that the U.S. now has on Musk in a variety of
fields, from the future of energy and transportation to the exploration
of space."

NASA currently relies on SpaceX for the transport of all NASA crews into
space. And Musk has gotten the jump on installing proprietary charging
stations for electric vehicles that work only with Teslas, which
complicates the Biden administration's policy on EVs.

There was a time when the Defense Department devised and operated its
own communications equipment (the U.S. Army Signal Corps dates to 1860)
and when NASA relied on contractors to build rockets but managed its own
launches. For that matter, there was a time when students who attended
public universities did not have to worry about debt or debt relief,
because these universities were not public in name only-they were
free.

Elsewhere on today's

**Prospect** site are pieces on abuses by investor-owned utilities
<[link removed]'s mixed success in its efforts to
restrain drug costs
<[link removed]'s August print issue is all about abuses and
inefficiencies in the private health care system
<[link removed]'s
extreme privatization that's new. In other cases, we need to take
systems that are partially public, such as Medicare and the VA, and make
them comprehensive for the entire citizenry. Why not boot Musk and take
back NASA control of rocket launches, not to mention battlefield signal
technology?

Most of our great achievements, from land grant colleges to Social
Security to public power, have been more socialistic than many liberals
like to admit. It's when these public systems get captured by
capitalists that they fail.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

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subscribe.  <[link removed]'s rules. BY DAVID DAYEN & MAUREEN TKACIK

How Private Monopolies Fuel Climate Disaster and Public Corruption
<[link removed]