It developed during a period of chaos when another country
called Russia got the first hunk of metal above the atmosphere and when
the representatives who had been picked for everything but their grasp
of science and government went into panic over a myth of national
prestige.
The space effort was turned over to the aircraft industry, which had
never been able to manage itself successfully except under the stimulus
of war or a threat of war. The failing airplane industry became the
space combine overnight, and nobody kept track of how big it was, except
a few sharp operators.
They worked out a system of subcontracts that spread the profits so wide
that hardly a company of any size in the country wasn't getting a share.
Thus a lot of patriotic, noble voters got their pay from companies in
the lobby block and could be panicked by the lobby at the first mention
of recession.
So Space Lobby took over completely in its own field. It developed
enough pressure to get whatever appropriations it wanted, even over
Presidential veto. It created the only space experts, which meant that
the men placed in government agencies to regulate it came from its own
ranks.
The other lobbies learned a lot from Space.
There had been a medical lobby long before, but it had been a
conservative group, mostly concerned with protecting medical autonomy
and ethics.
Pages:
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26