Topos’ friend Donald Cohen of In the Public Interest (ITPI) was interviewed on CNN recently, talking about Trump, Musk, and another ridiculous back-and-forth mud wrestling match at the federal level — this time over Musk’s short-lived threat to decommission a SpaceX program in order to spite (counterspite?) his former partner in crime. 

The meaningful takeaway from Donald Cohen’s comments is the importance of the American people remaining in control of our vital national programs, whether in space or on terra firma. Sure, we can hire contractors to do some of the work — but only if we have firm control over the ultimate decisions, processes, and outcomes. We need to be in charge of what the tolls are on our highways, not a private company. We need to be in charge of what’s taught in our schools, not a private company. And obviously we need to be in charge of the country’s space missions.

As Donald Cohen put it: “Privatization contractually transfers control over important public things to private interests. And this is true whether it’s a rocket, or science, or rocket science. Some things must be kept in public hands.”

Topos research several years ago helped ITPI, Donald, and their allies land on keeping control vs. handing over control as the key idea when it comes to privatization proposals. Drawing people’s attention to the idea that privatization means handing over control of important public goods and responsibilities to private companies (that have their own interests at heart), causes people’s perspectives to change. They focus on losing their voice in how things are done, and begin to look at privatization proposals with a much more critical and skeptical eye. 

We’re gratified to see this research is as applicable now as it ever was.