Asri-unix.649 net.space utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!duke!chico!harpo!mhtsa!eagle!ihnss!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:C70:sri-unix!INNERS@CMU-20C Wed Jan 27 08:20:38 1982 Government Funding of Space up here... First, if you accept the argument Dietz gives there is no special reason to fund even defense. If I want to be defended, I will voluntarily contribute to my local police, local NRA chapter, national military of my choice, etc. Everyone (except maybe the most radical Libertarians) agrees that some functions require mandatory contributions. Space exploration, in common with basic research, has the property that the benefits do not accrue directly to the organization performing the work. The benefits are distributed among many people who did not invest. Unless you impose severe restrictions on information flow, use of technology, mobility of employees, etc. there is no way that I, as owner of a firm doing (for example) free-fall medical research, can make every beneficiary pay for the benefits he is getting. I can't even get back my investment in all likelyhood. But the benefits have historicaly greatly outweighted the costs of such research. In the not-so-distant future space industrialization/exploration/ colonization has the potential to significantly improve conditions for the entire society. Again, there is no way for an investor to recover much profit from this. While it is not worthwhile for any small group of people to finance space exploration, a larger group finds it worthwhile since the cost can be spread thinner. -- Mike Inners ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.