All this billionaire space flight is dizzying. What it all has to do with we mere mortals remains to be seen.
Here’s something we can take to the bank: the amount of money billionaires Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk spent to get outside Earth’s atmosphere for a few minutes would solve many third-world countries’ education, housing and health problems. Not just one country, but many.
Branson has spent over a billion dollars of his own money to be weightless for two minutes, then glide back to earth. Musk and Bezos have spent at least as much, if not more.
Central African Republic’s Gross National Product is $2.3 billion. Somalia’s is $4 billion.
There’s a ton of taxpayer money in the mix also. New Mexico, under former Gov. Bill Richardson ponied up $220,000 in 2004 to court Branson to Truth or Consequences. Branson paid most of the weight but again, what could one of New Mexico’s cash-strapped departments do with that money.
It’s acknowledged this is the United States of America and everyone can do what they want with their own money. We’ve seen homeless people with cell phones and people using food stamps going out to get in a new car. It comes down to personal decisions.
All three billionaires have surely given to charity in their own ways, supporting causes with which they agree. That’s great and they should be commended.
You just can’t help but ask the “what if” questions. What if that money was put toward mental health institutions, training and care? What if that money was put toward feeding hungry people in our own country, much less the third world countries? Those two issues hold our country back and keep us from being the world leaders we once were.
The other issue New Mexicans must acknowledge is that we funded a lot of the Spaceport America. Taxpayers in Sierra County and Doña Ana County more than other New Mexicans. They passed a special tax back in 2004 to support the construction of the spaceport.
Both counties passed a “Spaceport GRT” of one-quarter percent on goods purchased in the two counties in March 2008 and implemented by the county commissions in May 2008.
The construction in the late 2000s surely created jobs for a couple years but time moves on.
We wonder how Sierra County taxpayers feel about the whole program today. Truth or Consequences lost both of its newspapers in the past few years. So there is no forum for citizens to share thoughts and feelings about the tax they still pay.
The argument can be made that space flight brings new innovations and things that make life easier. We’ve all benefited from the Apollo program, with microwaves, powdered drinks, freeze-dried and preserved food, memory foam and many other inventions. Those are all great things and when the electricity goes out you find out quickly how long it takes to warm something properly on top of a stove.
Will our billionaire friends come up with such gadgetry? Maybe, but at what cost. We’ll wager someone living on the street doesn’t care that they don’t own a microwave. Powdered drinks they may be grateful for.
Every time someone spends a huge chunk of money on something frivolous you can’t help wonder what if it was spent somewhere else for the greater good of society. Let’s not even start on who can spend $250,000 for a seat on Branson’s toy. The whole flight was about 45 minutes, 41 of which was spent getting to weightlessness and then gliding back to T or C.
Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have it right. They’ve chosen Earth-bound causes and devoted hundreds of millions of dollars to them. They’re involved and engaged.
Yes, it’s the three space-bound billionaires’ money to do with as they please but it is not difficult to find problems here on Earth that need attention now. People are living and dying in horrible conditions.