Subject: Re: OT: Congrats to SpaceX!
Congrats to SpaceX on a massive accomplishment today.

Yeah, except for the externality effects that libertarians love to ignore.

Virtually everywhere in the city 'ended up with a covering of a rather thick, granular, sand grain that just landed on everything,' Valerie Bates, a Port Isabel spokeswoman, said in an interview. Images posted to social media showed [residents' cars] covered in brown debris.

A window shattered at a fitness gym, its owner, Luis Alanis, said. Mr. Alanis, who was at home at the time of the launch, said he felt 'rumbling, kind of like a mini earthquake.' He estimated that the window would cost about $300 to fix.

Closer to the launch site, [large pieces of debris]were recorded flying through the air and smashing into an unoccupied car.

And here's the why:

Normally, major launch sites are engineered with a trench or [water system] that helps to divert the rocket's flame away from the ground and to dampen the impact, he said.
'They didn't do that,' he said. 'It appears they just went ahead and just launched this thing.'

Hey, but it's all good. So what if there are downslope economic costs to others? As long as the rocket got slightly off the launch pad, who cares about how it affects the unwashed?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/0...