Billionaires In Space: Why I Can't Get Behind It

Imagine this.  You want to become an astronaut.  You study hard and go to college and obtain a science degree.  You obtain a Master's Degree.  You train to be a pilot and log 1000 hours commanding a jet aircraft.  You go through a rigorous physical exam.  At the end of all that, maybe NASA will let you fly a rocket ship if your training and skills are sufficient and you are in good physical condition.  

Imagine what it must feel like when a billionaire skips the line and buys his way into space. 

The United States has one of the best space programs on the planet (the only planet humans currently occupy) and this is because NASA hires the most qualified people.  It hires the best engineers and technicians and pilots.  The astronaut program only accepts candidates who can pass its rigorous physical tests.  It's not a profession for the dilettante or the faint of heart.  One does not become an astronaut because one thinks it would be really cool to go into space.

Now this is exactly what billionaires are doing. Money shouldn't be able to buy scientific knowledge, pilot skills, and physical fitness, but somehow it does.

Is this proof that there is such thing as too much money?  What does one aspire to when one no longer wants for anything?  Many of us talk about what we would do if we struck it rich?  We might buy a dream home, or a fancy car.  We might finally buy those expensive designer shoes or handbags.  We would travel to all our bucket list destinations.  We would put money away for our retirement and our children's college educations.  

What would happen if you suddenly had the money to pay for all of this? You could have your dream home, and another one in a different location, along with couple of luxurious crash pads in other cities.  When you're not living at home, you're on the yacht. You can travel anywhere you want on your private jet.  You can indulge every hobby you ever dreamed of doing from horseback riding to racecar driving to flying your own planes to skydiving to mountain climbing.  Imagine having so much money that nothing in the world is closed to you.  What would you do then?

I believe much of the value humans derive from luxury goods and experiences is that they are out of reach, or at least difficult to acquire.  In order to have only one of the items or experiences listed above, we save our pennies.  We plan carefully.  We prioritize. We create a goal.   Once we have what we want, we cherish it because we worked for it.  

If you have enough money to do everything you ever wanted to do and buy whatever you wanted to buy, how much would you continue to value what you have?

Are billionaires going into space because they have nothing left to do and nothing new to experience or explore?

I don't have to say it, because so many others have done so, but if one literally has more money than he knows what to do with, then perhaps it's time to consider what that money can do for others.  I understand that billionaires have no obligation to give their money away.  They made their own money and it's theirs to keep.  I'm not asking them to simply give it away as "handouts".  I'm saying they could pay employees decent salaries (after all, employees are the ones helping them create that wealth), which would empower everyone across all income levels to make a meaningful contribution to the economy.  I am suggesting they start paying their fair share of taxes.  If you are living in the United States and receiving all the benefits of living here (such as the military, the law enforcement, the roads and bridges, the electrical grids) then you need to contribute to it.  Jeff Bezos could pay 1950s-era taxes and pay his workers a living wage, and he would still be one of the wealthiest people on the planet.  

Instead of creating a better world here on Earth, Bezos is planning to start a business of taking more unqualified people into space.  He will make more money off of this, and the planet continues to burn.  The only humans he cares about are the ones who will directly make him wealthier.  Space is nothing more to Bezos than a vanity project that he hopes will turn a huge profit.  

Space exploration and research used to be about furthering science, increasing human knowledge of the universe, and creating technologies that could potentially improve all of our lives.  Now it's about the profits for a few.  We aren't boldly going where no one has gone before.  We are going down the same paths humanity has always traveled.  Those paths just happen to be in space now.

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I feel like I should put in an aside here regarding Wally Funk.  Yes, I'm happy for her.  It is refreshing to see there is a place where age doesn't limit one's experiences.  I am sure when Funk first trained as an astronaut in the 1960s, NASA was a different place and likely hostile to women.  Funk was probably denied opportunities due to sex alone.  I suppose this space flight is a form of justice.  Looking at it from this point of view I am glad she had her chance to live her dream.  NASA now has several active female astronauts.  The world is changing.  I want to see more women live a dream of going into space because they are qualified and not because they have the money to pay for a ride on a private rocket.