So Elon Musk’s SpaceX has finally overtaken Amazon in market value, and British investors are reportedly gleeful. One can almost hear the clinking of champagne glasses in the City of London, as portfolios fatten on the fruits of American ingenuity. But before we break into a chorus of ‘Rule, Britannia’, let us pause to consider what this milestone truly signifies.
It is not merely a victory for a billionaire space cowboy; it is a seismic shift in the hierarchy of human ambition, a moment that echoes the great industrial leaps of the Victorian era. Where once we marvelled at Brunel’s steamships, we now gaze skyward at reusable rockets. The parallel is instructive: both eras rewarded those who dared to think beyond the ledger book.
Yet, how many of our own British investors are backing such frontiers? Or are they merely passive rent-seekers, riding the coattails of American risk-takers? The truth is uncomfortable: this triumph is a mirror held up to our own intellectual decadence.
We have become a nation of speculators, not builders. We trade shares in boldness rather than being bold ourselves. SpaceX’s ascent is a testament to a culture that still glorifies the inventor, the engineer, the madman with a slide rule.
Compare that to the bean-counting ethos of modern Britain, where a ‘unicorn’ is a startup that delivers groceries faster. The Fall of Rome was not sudden; it was a slow rot from within, a preference for comfortable baths over frontier grit. We are witnessing a similar decadence here.
Yes, enjoy the dividends by all means. But ask yourselves: when will we build the next SpaceX? Or are we content to simply collect the rent from those who do?
The Victorians would be ashamed. And so should we.
