Scaled Composites were always clear that the X-Prize attempt was just a side project for them. It was promotion. They were always after making money on space tourism, and with their contract to build ships for Virgin, they're succeeding. I don't begrudge them this, I'm just pointing out that your not-for-profit argument holds no water.
> You're backwards here. I view the (relative) efficiency and success of ONE government, namely mine, in the light of the failure of NoKo and the USSR and China before it decided to go with the whole capitalism thing. Our government, which is very limited in comparison, hindered progress much less than the governments of those places did/do.
And you're turning a blind eye to highly successful socialist governements, like the Scandinavian ones, one of which I live under, and enjoy a lot. Particularly near to my heart is that the state pays me to study at university. I could probably not have afforded this otherwise, except by taking on crippling debt. And giving everyone the opportunity to higher education has payed off, giving us a very strong technology market.
> And the Chernobyl incident under Big Brother's watch in the USSR
After the Chernobyl accident, the Russian governement launched a huge rescue and clean-up operation. Union Carbide, and later Dow Chemicals, did pretty much nothing, and payed as little compensation as they could get away with, and only after being taken to court over it. They've also refused to ever admit responsibility, because that would open them to more lawsuits and money loss.