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At least 2,145 senior-ranking NASA employees are set to leave under a push to shed staff, according to documents obtained by POLITICO — potentially spelling trouble for White House space policy and depriving the agency of decades of experience.

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
    81·
    3 days ago

    Even worse, if it were, NASA would be the last place to cut.

    NASA actually sees a return on investment.

    You know, one of the modern problems is we aren’t investing nearly enough public funds into R&D. Like 90% of 20th century American technological investment came from Bell Labs and public research.

    Bell could invest a lot in research because they had money and weren’t concerned with competition. One of the benefits of being a protected monopoly.

    In retrospect, it’d be nice to have had the money without having the monopoly.

    I don’t know the numbers but I wouldn’t be surprised if any FAANG is bigger than Bell was at its peak. But they aren’t really monopolies to the level Bell was, so they keep most of what they develop and learn as proprietary/internal.

    Edit to add: you know what country is putting a lot of public money behind R&D and subsidizing future industries? How do you think this will play out in 20 years? Chinas playing the long game and we are destroying decades of institutional knowledge for tiny quarterly gains. Absurd.

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
        3·
        3 days ago

        Kindof? I guess that’s a corollary. What I’m saying is that despite being objectively larger and more successful companies, they don’t have nearly the innovation we got from the collaborative efforts of US (i.e. DARPA) and Bell’s research.

        It demonstrated that looking out on a very long timeline…decades, if not longer…and investing on projects that won’t show any returns for just as long…if ever…but it can reap massive rewards for everyone.

        But…capitalism…pure capitalism…only allows that through monopolies. Which of course is their own can of worms.

        Regulated capitalism is just as bad, if not even worse, because there is no incentive for companies to work together on a long enough timeline for it to matter. It results in everything being measured on a quarterly/yearly scale and expecting immediate results, while also disincentivizing publishing or any other dissemination of knowledge

        Hence it falls on the government to bankroll these things through grants.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
      24·
      3 days ago

      I was curious so I asked ChatGPT. The answer was surprising…all of them tower over Bell by nearly every financial measure…

      Was Any Company Bigger Than Bell at Its Peak?

      Short answer: Yes — by some metrics. But Bell was unique.

      📡 Bell System at Its Peak

      The Bell System (AT&T and its regional Bell companies) was a government-regulated telecom monopoly until its breakup in 1984.

      • Revenue (early 1980s): ~$70–80B/year
        → ~$220–250B today, inflation-adjusted
      • Employees: Over 1 million
      • Market Cap (est.): ~$100–150B in 1980s
        → ~$300–400B today
      • Market Share: ~90% of U.S. phone service
      • R&D: Bell Labs (invented transistor, UNIX, lasers, info theory, etc.)

      In short: Bell controlled the entire U.S. telecom backbone and set the pace for global innovation.

      🦷 Big Tech Today (as of 2025)

      Company Market Cap Revenue (TTM) Employees
      Apple ~$3.5T ~$420B ~150,000
      Amazon ~$2T ~$600B ~1.5 million
      Alphabet ~$2.5T ~$370B ~180,000
      Microsoft ~$3.5T ~$300B ~220,000
      Meta ~$1.3T ~$140B ~65,000
      • All exceed Bell’s revenue and market cap, even adjusted for inflation.
      • Amazon rivals Bell’s employee count, but largely due to warehouses and delivery.

      🧠 Influence Comparison

      Category Bell System FAANG & Friends
      Revenue ~$220–250B (adj.) ✅ Yes (Apple, Amazon, etc.)
      Market Cap ~$300–400B (adj.) ✅ Yes (multiple > $2T)
      Employees ~1M ✅ Amazon (~1.5M)
      Infrastructure Control National telecom monopoly ❌ No – rely on existing infra
      Scientific Legacy Bell Labs (transistor, UNIX) ❌ Unmatched in corporate R&D
      Monopoly Power Legally enforced monopoly ❓ De facto dominance (ads, data, AI)

      🧾 TL;DR: Is Anyone “Bigger”?

      By market value and revenue? ✅ Yes
      By number of employees? ✅ Amazon
      By influence on infrastructure, science, and policy? ❌ No — Bell was foundational

      Bell wasn’t just a company — it was the nervous system of American communication.