Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Space, the Final Affront

I have always been a science, and science fiction, buff, and have believed in backing our space program. I am fully aware of how much it has been used militarily, and that many folks see it as a waste of money desperately needed here earthside. Nonetheless my love for all things space travel related has continued unabated.

That is until now.

Space Tourism has been touted as an up and coming industry these past several years. According to this article, this "dream" is one step closer. Well goodie for these guys. I'm sure it's going to be just wonderful.

But as far as I'm concerned, the timing is what is all wrong. We are arguably on the brink of a very bad recession, if not an outright depression, and the core reason (though you won't hear about it in the mainstream media) is that the rich are robbing us blind. Sending jobs overseas, and rewarding these actions with tax breaks; turning a blind eye to illegal immigration, which in turn lowers wages across the board; lowering taxes on the rich; sending billions and billions unaccountably to Iraq; all this has drained the middle class while rewarding the super rich with our hard-earned money.

And who gets to take tourist trips into space? Well the article says the company has 200 firm reservations with $30 million in deposits. My math tells me that means these would-be astronautical travelers have each plopped down $150,000 as a deposit. I wonder how much the full trip costs.

I find this to be an obscene flaunting of this pirated wealth in the faces of those of us (the vast majority that is) who are being fleeced.

I heard Congressman Robert Wexler on a radio show this morning. He suggested that the first thing we ought to be doing right now is repealing Bush's tax cuts. I agree to that - as a start anyway. Instead Bush is looking for ways to put the lion's share of his "relief package" into the hands of the robber barons.

On second thought, maybe all of these guys ought to be flown into space.

One way.

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