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Space industry lacks workers needed to rebuild satellites lost in war: report

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Re: Space industry lacks workers needed to rebuild satellites lost in war: report

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But markets can make doing those things financially worthwhile.

One of the bigger problems with capitalism is that it reacts much too slowly to be a viable economic system.

One of the bigger problems of non-capitalist systems is that it requires whips to force people to do things they do not want to do without adequate compensation

Re: Space industry lacks workers needed to rebuild satellites lost in war: report

#53
post #30
post #10

To paraphrase patio11, a disagreement between you and the market is not a shortage. I'm surprised that anyone still believes the perennial "labor shortage" complaints. It has always been about employers refusing to improve wages and working conditions.

How I view "labor shortage" complaints by default: "What's with this shortage of new cars for $5,000!? As a hard-working consumer, I simply can't find enough of what I want at the limited price I am willing to offer, and I demand to know how the government is going to solve this pressing national crisis of enormous importance!" Go out and look, and you'll see it's definitely a shortage... yet somehow it seems wrong t…

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic (because you want a $5k car and they don't exist in your market) or serious (because you want a $5k car from China which they do actually sell at that price).

Re: Space industry lacks workers needed to rebuild satellites lost in war: report

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is that there are scenarios where large powers would disable/destroy each other's satellites without using nuclear weapons and we would be poorly prepared to replace them.

I think your parent commenter's point is that the satellites are used to detect launches. No satellites == no early warning == temptation to launch preemptively.

It's possible. IIRC, the large powers have enough mobile nuclear capabilities that even if they suffered from a first strike, they could still retaliate and cripple the striking country, but maybe I'm wrong about that.

It's pretty much what Iran is doing to the US now with their supply of mobile ballistic missiles and drones, but on a global scale with subs/etc... added to the mix.

Re: Space industry lacks workers needed to rebuild satellites lost in war: report

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is that there are scenarios where large powers would disable/destroy each other's satellites without using nuclear weapons and we would be poorly prepared to replace them.

Is there any infrastructure of which this is not true? Every country, not just the Great Powers, has a large amount of installed plant which is the result of decades, in some cases centuries, of capital accumulation. And which modern weaponry can destroy in a matter of minutes. It's just easier to destroy than to build, and literally no industry has the capacity to rebuild as fast as a war breaks - if they did, most…

Or distributed (grids) if they can't be defended. But yeah, most large infrastructure is susceptible to strikes by adversaries. Satellites are I think more delicate, difficult to replace, and easier to strike in certain cases.

Re: Space industry lacks workers needed to rebuild satellites lost in war: report

#56
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the bigger problems with capitalism is that it reacts much too slowly to be a viable economic system.

One of the bigger problems of non-capitalist systems is that it requires whips to force people to do things they do not want to do without adequate compensation

[deleted]

Re: Space industry lacks workers needed to rebuild satellites lost in war: report

#57
post #48

We "lack workers to rebuild" many things that could be lost in a war with peer thermonuclear-armed powers. The only winning move is not to play

Unfortunately, you don't always get that choice. Just look at what Putin did to Ukraine. There was absolutely no reason for him to play that, but he did. Yes, you should work for peace, but beware that it's not always possible. Or maybe I should say not always acceptable. It certainly would have been possible for Ukraine to give in, but I don't blame them for not accepting that option.

[flagged]

Re: Space industry lacks workers needed to rebuild satellites lost in war: report

#58

Somehow I doubt that after a war with China, satellites would be high on the priority list of things that need rebuilding. You'd probably start with rebuilding more basic manufacturing and refinery industry destroyed during the war.

>> Somehow I doubt that after a war with China, satellites would be high on the priority list of things that need rebuilding. If GPS goes down, most of our communications will go down. A lot of other stuff falls from there. I suspect we'd be OK after a brief adjustment, but it would be very disruptive.

Did you mean “transportation”? Communications networks are not reliant on GNSS.

Re: Space industry lacks workers needed to rebuild satellites lost in war: report

#59
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, you don't always get that choice. Just look at what Putin did to Ukraine. There was absolutely no reason for him to play that, but he did. Yes, you should work for peace, but beware that it's not always possible. Or maybe I should say not always acceptable. It certainly would have been possible for Ukraine to give in, but I don't blame them for not accepting that option.

[flagged]

> Ukraine had many, many opportunities to avoid war.

Being invaded being the straw that broke the camel's back?

Re: Space industry lacks workers needed to rebuild satellites lost in war: report

#60
post #53
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How I view "labor shortage" complaints by default: "What's with this shortage of new cars for $5,000!? As a hard-working consumer, I simply can't find enough of what I want at the limited price I am willing to offer, and I demand to know how the government is going to solve this pressing national crisis of enormous importance!" Go out and look, and you'll see it's definitely a shortage... yet somehow it seems wrong t…

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic (because you want a $5k car and they don't exist in your market) or serious (because you want a $5k car from China which they do actually sell at that price).

You can tell it's sarcasm because I have a second paragraph stating that it's wrong to dignify the pearl-clutching histrionics with a lot of concern.

> $5k car from China which they do actually sell at that price

Which will be +$2k to transport, and then someone will charge you more because of limited supply, and then it still won't be legal on public roads and highways.

In other words, that's a pretty big stretch.

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