I know that the “send the dominant competitor into orbit” thing is probably the funnier explanation for why I’m glad that Jeff Bezos was launched. But, that’s not why I’m glad that he went into space.
Bezos is rightfully getting grief over Amazon’s unfair labor practices, terrible work conditions, predatory pricing strategies, and overall shark-like behavior. Allegedly. But, I think that the billionaire space-travelers are onto something.1
“Space: The final frontier…”
If you believe in science and climate change, then you can certainly see why space exploration is important. If you just believe in learning more about the universe and what’s out there, you can see why what these programs are doing is important.
Don’t get me wrong: I definitely see the risk in having someone who made his billions hunting down and killing other businesses like they were wounded gazelles having that much influence over space travel and colonization. Perhaps the same legislators who were a little late in noticing Amazon’s market control and are currently talking about his taxes might try to get ahead of this problem by funding space travel and research appropriately. I actually find that argument to be more interesting than the current dialogue about billionaires going to space.
It’s complicated.
The bottom-line is that space exploration needs to happen, and fans of science and progress should take a few minutes to acknowledge that. Then, they need to write their congresspeople to ask them to fund the country’s space programs better. Because the time to start worrying about a private company establishing too much market control in space very well may be right now.
- It’s been well-documented that Bezos’s ultimate objective isn’t running a space tourism business. He’s been saying for decades that his whole goal is to colonize space. His career reminds me of the scene in “Major Payne” where the Major tells Bam Bam Bigelow exactly how he’s going to beat him up and then everyone is standing around acting surprised when he follows through on his plan. This dude is the master of the long game, has been talking about colonizing space for almost 40 years, is proud of being relentless, and people seriously think that making money on rides to space is his endgame? ↩
