Common question: Why don’t you do something more useful?*
Well, after many days of sun and sand, I am back; but even in vacations, work manages to get around.
One of the most common question I have been asked about the SE is “Why don’t you make something good here on Earth, like the cure for cancer. Space is so distant and far away”. For some time I must admit I didn’t give a good answer. I adopted a defensive stand point like “That’s what I want to do” and felt like I had lost the argument.
I hated to be placed in that position, specially when asked by people who weren’t doing anything good for Earth. What kind of right did they had to question the project in which I worked if their were slackers themselves? It pissed me off.
Time has passed and as I gained experience I found the answer which I know and feel is right. When asked why we don’t do something more “useful” like helping the poor, I say “Well, we are a private company. Our goal is to make a profit and our debt with society is to generate wealth. We are in it for the money”
Ok, not everyone likes the answer. When mentioned the word “money”, some of them shudder, like if it was some type of disease. They look at you in horror, wondering what kind of monster are you for wanting to make a fortune instead of helping the sick & poor.
But they simply have no further argument. They fall themselves in the same idea since they can’t argue that profit is what private industry does. Oh, they will still question the project with other reasons, like distance (space is 100km from the surface, where is the distance?), weaponization (we are private, not goverment. And BTW, there still are thousands of nuclear warheads around), radiation (we won’t use radioactive material), the cable falling down (7.5kg per kilometer), contamination of the orbit (actually, we will clean it), conspiracy theories (lots of recommended reading), economy (US$100 billion industry, and growing), usefulness (do you like your cable TV, cel phone, debit card and those cheap long distance calls? Better make a shrine to satellites) and some more lesser ideas.
At the end they still feel that they have “higher reasons” and “better values” than us. I don’t care. Although I like a lot to teach about that whole world (space industry) that exists beyond the common knowledge, I know that we will always find people who opposes us. Be it a Space Elevator, or a gold mine in Peru’s Andes, you will always find someone who questions you. And the effort to change their opinion ain’t worth the time (ergo, money). Better use it doing something useful for the world like creating jobs through the private sector.
To me, it is the best way to increase humanity’s standard of living.
*This entry was originally posted in Liftport’s blog.