You remind me of the "grumpy old man" who would sit at his condo window and watch to make sure the other residents don't disobey the rules. Do you have many friends?
I've been a critic of the shuttle program for a long time, not because of the "big government" or "world government" aspects of it but because it is terribly costly no matter how you look at it.
Understand that much of the shuttle program does not involve "space exploration" -- it is largely to support commercial activities such as satellite launches, etc. And it amounts to an enormous subsidy to the companies that use it, because it would be much cheaper for a company like AT&T to use a Chinese rocket or one of the French Arianne rockets to do the same thing.