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Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic, and Inequality
Yes, it is a good thing that space exploration is back on. However, a lot of the story is not about science or engineering. It is about inequality. We are living in a Gilded Age, where there are a few winners. These people want all kinds of toys and to make more money, of course. None of these people is doing this to just advance science. There is wealth to be mined out there. The asteroid belt alone was wealth beyond imagination.
They also can afford to do this because they have the resources they have accumulated. I am not begrudging them what they are doing. After all, they are the absolute winners in the monopoly game we call crony capitalism. They are the new robber barons of the Second Gilded Age. Like the first, they are doing things now for legacy. Back then it was connecting the country with railroads and other forms of infrastructure. Now it is making space commercial, the next gilded age frontier.
Here is the problem. This level of inequality is not sustainable. There is anger in the land because most people are living paycheck to paycheck, and could lose their homes overnight. This is also a place where medical care is not readily available for the masses, in spite of what we tell ourselves.