Category Archives: Economics

A Fool And His Money

Jeff Bezos wants to give away his fortune for climate and unifying humanity.

Interestingly, there is no mention of space, even though he has famously claimed that his goal is to see billions of people out in the solar system. At the Space Settlement Summit in the wrap-up session on Friday, the NSSers were bemoaning the lack of public support for and knowledge about the potential of opening the solar system to economic development, and wondering how to change that.

I noted that Mr. Bezos, both as one of the word’s wealthiest men, and a media mogul, could do a lot to remedy that if he chose to. They said, “but he’s given us a million dollars to promote space,” as though a) that is a significant amount of money in the context of both his fortune and the amount that he is ostensibly spending on his rocket company and b) that the best way to promote space is to give money to NSS. They took my comment as a suggestion to ask him for more money (which would simply look self serving), when what I meant is that they should tell him that he should be spending more money, in a more effective way than handing it out to non-profits (e.g., hire PR firms).

The Left Were The Mad Scientists

…and we were their lab rats.

This reminds me of the old Soviet joke about the schoolkid:

“Teacher, is it really true that Marx was the greatest scientist in history?”

“Yes, Pyotr, it is true.”

“Then why didn’t he try this crap on rats first?”

[Friday-morning update]

Heretics against the cult of authority.