CNN reporter Brian Stelter calls Richard Branson’s launch in Space Ship Two to the edge of space a vanity tour that leaves behind a burning planet. This is the future of private human space exploration. Other “experts” note that Branson, Bezos, Musk and others ride to the heavens on a plume of “the people’s money”.
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24 replies on “CNN on Branson Launch: Billionaire Vanity Tour to Space Leaves Behind Burning Planet”
As we all know, the left doesn’t care about humanity, resources, the environment, etc.
They care about power. These recent whiny complaints are nothing but a combination of expression of jealousy AND an attempt to take some of that power by negging, guilting, implicitly threatening, etc.
If these whiny concern trolling complaints gain traction, watch for the left to quietly walk back all of this when the evil billionaires start offering them rides on the resource hogging space trips and offer to start hiring more diverse, BIPOC, kool-aid hair, gender studies majors to work for the evil billionaires at their resource squandering, billionaire toy ride company.
1776: and I gather he meant Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations rather than the DOI. AKA: specialization and trade. But the real question is “why did it take so long for this concept of wealth creation to gain real traction?” I suspect that the answer lies somewhere between the Jewish money lenders, the Italian Renaissance bankers, and the Bank of England managing to survive while creating a really large body of money capital [aka debt] to drive the Industrial Revolution. Money lubricates the economy but does not fuel it [see below for that].
Heart and Soul: or a really large number of neurons (10^11) connected together via dendrites and axons and synapses (10^3 per neuron) [totaling 100 trillion or 10^14 connections], otherwise known as intelligence, creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. This is what fuels the economy, but the social and economic systems/ structure had to be in place that rewarded such efforts before they could take off. No point in generating new technology if the tribal chief or the king was just going to take away all of the rewards that should have come your way for your investment of time and talent.
Somewhere I read that a paleolithic hunter gather tribe might make about 300 different items (sku’s), such as arrows, baskets, clothing, etc. And most of these were of a type that the fabricator could use for themselves. If someone had had the idea to specialize in making arrow heads and trading them with someone else specializing in making baskets, the chief would just have absconded with the net wealth of all those new arrows and baskets anyway.
But today we have 30 billion sku’s or some number like that. I probably have at least 100 different items around me in my office right now (lumping all “books” into one sku rather than the 800 or so individual tomes/topics/ titles behind me now).
I remember reading an online article a couple of years ago about a person who was working to build a space hotel for people to vacation in and expected it to be ready within not too many years. I read the article with a lot of interest. I knew that it would not be something I would be able to afford in my remaining years, but I knew that once the super rich people had done it for a few years and worked out the bugs that my kids or grandkids will be able to have glorious experiences in space, not as astronauts but as regular citizens! AMAZING! I am one of those people who has been sad about how our space-age hopes from the 60’s had run dry, and this was very heartening.
BUT… I should have stopped there. I made the mistake of reading the comments which were almost universally wishing HORRIBLE DEATH on the people who would go to this hotel. There was so much HATE from these people that I was really crushed. The venom in these comments was very discouraging to read, but this is what these leftists are teaching our kids in the government schools and universities – and more and more people even in the west are sounding like the young people who were the punishers and executioners in the Chinese cultural revolution.
It is not for nothing that God put in the wise tenth commandment. That commandment against coveting is really about the root cause of the violation of the other commandments like stealing, lying, adultery, etc. (Sort of like how the tenth amendment in the Bill of Rights reinforces the principles of the previous 9 amendments, a similarity that is rather uncanny and shows the wisdom of the framers and one of the sources of that wisdom IMHO.)
My father was a research engineer for NASA in the 1960 to 1980 period, and he developed the magnetometor that was on all the unmanned space vehicles of that day. I miss him greatly, and remember him at home working on his mission to develope a way to measure planatary magnetic fields.
I dislike Bezos, not because he’s wealthy, but because he used that wealth to purchase a major newspaper. He then used that paper to lie and propagandize to the American public about many many things. He is also reputed to treat his employees like crap. Branson, on the other hand, stays out of public politics for the most part. I have a niece that works for Virgin Corp and has nothing but great things to say about the company. She’s a server at the Virgin Hotel Pool Club in Nashville, so not a high level position, but she’s paid well and has health insurance – really good insurance. The way those 2 men treat people means way more than either of their bank account balances.
I’ve known and been friends with some rich and relatively powerful people. I don’t want to name drop here but in an earlier point in my life I was friends with the son of the acknowledged world’s top violinist, an English Lord and an Italian Count and Contessa (she was from Montana …). I’m not bragging or trying to impress anyone, those were just some examples of my life experience. They were all very, very good people and not a Leftist among them.
I’ve known and been friends with some dirt poor people too. One of my old hunting buddies lived in an abandoned house that stood on rural property owned by a mutual friend. He was very poor but had a sunny disposition and a heart of gold. His word was gold too, if he borrowed $20 and said he would pay me back next Wednesday when he got paid, I had the money before sundown Wednesday without fail. Like above, these are just examples. I’ve known other people rich, poor and everywhere in-between.
My observation is that people are people. Rich people show their true colors because they haven’t the least care what others think of them. So if their heart is black, black are their deeds too. The reverse applies, if their hearts are good then their deeds follow. On the other end of the spectrum, truly poor people are the same way, they have no more to lose so if they’re bad inside they’re bad outside too. But if they’re good people inside they’re are as good as a person as one could hope to find.
I don’t know Branson or Bezos at all. I don’t really pay much attention to them as people, just names in the news to me. However, what you said supports my position that people are people and their real natures are obvious, wealth or none. There’s no amount of virtue signaling that will cover the stench of a rotten core.
This note will be a bit long. Anyone raise two-year olds? One of the things they say if a toy is taken away to be used by another is “Mine!”. The other notable feature is that a toddler will scream and pound feet and hands when restricted from doing what he wishes. Ummm. Property and freedom. We also know all of us are hardwired to seek “life” at the deepest level of physiology. Ummm. Life. As we watch our children grow we are met with real rebellion. Ummm. Liberty. My point, clearly, is that the writers of the Declaration understood basic human elements, literally hard-wired into our beings, to which I will add “rebellion” when those elements are thwarted. Creativity is a form of liberty and pursuit of happiness, whether or not it comes from a desire for wealth or simply personal expression. When suppressed, all manner of terrible things happen. Capitalism, with all its many faults, is the only system of economics I can find which has rewarded those elements. Of course there have been distortions, but history has demonstrated that the worst practices can be reigned in without destroying the fundamental of reward. What the reaction is among too many, especially in this country where the poor are much better off by comparison to past decades here and to most places elsewhere, is not really envy. More generously they bring out their own virtues, of wanting “the best for all” without thinking through the impossibility of that task and the misery we have seen through history of those who attempt it. Why do these attempts fail? Because the fundamental nature of humans is “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. One must reject human behavior to accomplish that utopia (which incidentally means “nowhere”). Those powerful governments which sought to achieve that utopia had to destroy, literally, all opposition and suppress the natural strivings of its people. They also destroyed joy, laughter, creativity, cultures, and institutions which otherwise led people to explore the opportunities available to free people.
Relating these elements of human nature to the credo in the DOI is a good connection to make. That is why we don’t intentionally let 2 year old’s run the government, although that restriction seems to have gotten away from us recently. We must also recall that “all men are created equal” is not a literal belief, but an aspirational one as we are all human beings and not lower form animals, so we have sentience, conscience, a moral sense, etc. So we aim for equality before the law and recognize the limitations of pursuing “best for all” ideas [aka “equity”].
Now, if the French of 1789 had said: “liberty, fraternity, equality — pick two out of three”, maybe their aspirations would have not have been side tracked by Robespierre and Napoleon.
Good comment, especially the two out of three!
Bezos did and does benefit from the people’s money by skimming profit off of the obscenely unprofitable Post Office, but any blame for that is entirely ours.
Same goes for FedEx and UPS. They farm out deliveries to the USPS, on Sundays no less.
Even worse is the arrangement we have with foreign post offices. When I last checked (and is there really any reason to hope our government improved something since then?), as I understood it, the agreement worked like this: Domestic post office takes payment for package to be delivered overseas. Recipient country delivers item with none of that postage collected applied to the costs incurred after package arrives at recipient country’s port of entry. I guess the idea was that eventually it evens out, but seriously, we’re sending an equivalent amount of packages to China that they’re sending to us?
With today’s debt, I think you mean the people’s grandchildren’s money. Fixing the PO might actually take a constitutional amendment, which is why I favor another amendment to make a Convention of the States mandatory every 48 to 60 years, so we have reasonable chances to clean up things like that [even when the Congress is no so inclined to do so].
You’re so right about the debt. Periodic Convention of the States are a great idea. Seems like it would be more efficient to amend the people so that they don’t need to wait for permission from the government to tell them they need to rein it in. Declaring the first one a precedent for future ones would be a great start.
“Go build your own fortune and give it away”.
I’m reminded of a conversation Rush Limbaugh had with a medical student, way back in the 90s. The student was all in favor of socialized medicine because he wanted people to have medical care when they couldn’t afford it.
Rush told him he had a great idea. “After you graduate from medical school, give your services away!”
Somehow, the student did not like that suggestion at all.
Progressives are a nasty lot consumed by envy – they can’t produce anything but hate and hot air. Eliminating progressivism i.e. Marxism, Socialism, Communism would save humanity.
In other words, removing Progressivism would actually improve progress. Who’d a thunk it!
To absurdity–and beyond.
Rush Limbaugh used to say that when he and other rich people paid over $50,000 for a new just out big screen TV they were paving the way for the rest of us to get them by showing the desire of people to have them. Then the price comes down for all of us. So true.
My first HDTV was a “mere” 42-inch rear-projector model from Mitsubishi that topped out at 1080i. It took up a huge chunk of my living room footprint, the lamps alignment required constant fine-tuning, and there was very little content available at 720p or 1080i. And it cost $2499… in 1999 dollars.
My most recent HDTV is 65”, isn’t much thicker than a hardcover book, hang on the wall, and delivers a 4K picture in High Dynamic Range. I set it up once and that’s it. There’s content galore. It cost $999 last week,
There are actually two separate dynamics at work here that both show the benefits of capitalist economy.
1 – Through economies of scale and improved manufacturing techniques, including automation; we were able to reduce the cost of existing designs. So that rear-projector model came down in price.
2 – Additionally, we kept working on the design and features to improve the overall appeal of the product. We didn’t just make a cheaper, big TV. We made a cheaper, better, more compact TV.
This happens due to market demand. Even with the reduced price of the rear-projector model, there was still a large part of the potential customers who wouldn’t put up with that huge chunk of real estate or the constant fine-tuning. So in order to recoup the investment and actually make a profit, more investment was needed to be done to improve the product.
If these forces didn’t work, we would still have relatively small screens with big tube screens and poor visual quality. This is the real danger of socialist stagnation. No improvements. Everyone gets the same poor quality junk because there is no money to invest in making things better.
This is the lesson to learn from Cuba and Venezuela. Look at those photos from Cuba and it looks the same as the 1960s because in many respects, it is.
I bought a 40″ Samsung LCD flatscreen TV 2 years ago when they were being phased out at the “Black Friday” sale at Best Buy for $235. My living room is 16″ X 16″ and it can be watched anywhere in that room perfectly…and I no longer watch it! There is nothing on the tube worth watching anymore so I cancelled my Dish service and removed my antenna. My son uses it as a monitor for his Nintendo Switch! Anything I want to see I can get on my desktop PC any time I wish it watch it, not when it’s being broadcast when THEY want. I can still get my local 5 network TV air broadcasts if I desire, but generally, I don’t. There’s plenty of content on the internet to keep me informed.
My sentiments exactly.
I check out a youtuber named Kyle Hill sometimes, as he does a lot of science type shows and can explain things quite well. Goes a little silly sometimes, but I put up with that.
His show on Sunday was partially about Branson’s flight (and a lot of viewer questions) and sadly one of the things he talked about was how wealthy Branson and Bezos were and not that they were using all of that money to make things possible for use to actually afford in the future. He also did not mention Branson buying the ship from the Rutan’s either, so I don’t know if he knows about that part of it or not.
It is too bad that many people think it is free to build an international empire that lets you build wealth by skimming a penny on so many transactions it adds up, and then when you have so many you can spend them so friviously on things that no one else can afford, just to give the business the capital to work out the efficiency and turn something that is proof of concept into a household item.