Post #5480 Man of the Year 2021

My choices for 2021 Man of the Year are:

 

Elon Musk; Richard Branson; Jeff Bezos

Note that my end-of-year "awards" are bytes in cyberspace. These guys probably make more in interest and dividends each year than I'll earn in my lifetime. But they earn what money can't buy: my respect.

I realize that specifying Elon Musk may sound like I'm copying Time Magazine's choice. but the honest truth is, I haven't read a word of the relevant Time article. Elon Musk is a polymath entrepreneur.  He, of course, heads Tesla, SpaceX, and multiple other ventures, including tunneling/transportation, and satellite Internet services. (Self-disclosure: one of my nephew engineers works for SpaceX, and my proud brother-in-law constantly posts SpaceX videos on social media.)

My choice was even more obvious by this summer's initial space tourism competition between Branson's Virgin Galactic and Bezos' Blue Origin. That, of course, wasn't the only competition. SpaceX had won a nearly $3B moon landing contract contested by Blue Origin.

The broader theme of course is space commercialization. It isn't so much I can't wait for the next flight to the Space Station Hilton. But it's no longer your grandfather's one stop shop NASA. You have the private sector implementing innovations like reusable launch systems. We have seen real world results of government monopoly failures, like last year's COVID-19 testing rollout and spoiled vaccine doses as states micromanaged vaccine distributions. (e.g., New York state) and younger, healthier relatives get their shots earlier than me because of their politically favored group membership. 

Don't get me wrong; there are serious liberty risks here, with crony capitalism and industrial policy. I would personally prefer to see privatization of. space. But the inclusion of the private sector in space policy is a positive step forward.

Finally, this year's selection is a natural progression of what I did last year to choosing private sector COVID-19 vaccine developers.