Space Settlement FAQ's]

More from Dennis May, responding to Ron Healey.

Monart
~ * ~
Starship Aurora

Subject: [Starship_Forum] Re: Space Settlement FAQ's
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 19:35:56 -0600
From: Dennis May
Reply-To: Starship_Forum@yahoogroups.com
To: Starship_Forum@yahoogroups.com

Ryan Healey wrote (11/15):

> There were also many problems created by the free market. For example the
> Great Depression...Keynesian theory. Interestingly, the free market
> caused the great depression then government got out of it. Getting rid of
> the gold standard was what allowed the world to get out of the depression...

I gather you are a Keynesian socialist.
Your view of what a free market is and
what brought about the Great Depression
is considerably different than the
view held by those who support a free
market. Keynesian theory has been
discredited in academia but remains
influential in big government circles.
I suggest you find a copy of "Gold and
Freedom" by Richard M. Salsman. Except
during the "War Between the States"
time period the United States had 75 years
of uninterrupted growth while on a gold
standard. The bubbles of instability
during this time of unparalleled growth
were directly traceable to States
interfering with inter-state banking.
Later on big government interfered with
the economy creating arbitrary anti-trust
regulations followed by the income tax
and credit policies entirely disconnected
from production. This free flowing credit
from nowhere caused a boom borne of
mal-investment followed by a bust known as
the Great Depression. Further intervention
prolonged and deepened the Depression.
Investors slowly returned to the market
after the confiscation of accumulated
wealth slowed and onerous illegal legislation
and directives were thrown out or blocked by
the Supreme Court. The return to legal
stability once again allowed investors to
plan ahead. The prevention of FDR packing
the Supreme Court was an important turning
point.

Ryan Healey wrote:

> Only a monopoly or a company with external support can continue with an
> unprofitable project for more then 3 years and still exist.

Profitable companies invest part of their
profits into growth prospects for the
future. There is nothing difficult to
understand about this. Some companies
look 25 or more years ahead even in this
mixed economy. In a free economy companies
can plan even further ahead as they did
in the 1885 time frame.

Ryan Healey wrote:

> When government is a monopoly at least those living under them have a
> choice but when corporations are a monopoly almost no one gets a choice
> (competition has to be significant).

When government is a monopoly you have a choice?
I don't hardly think so. They also have the
option of deadly force to back up their monopoly,
i.e. their legal tender system.

> If you want to know what happens when a free market is implemented I
> suggest you go to Chile and have a look around.

Chile has always had a less free market than the
United States and a number of other nations.
Their one bright moment has been some privatization
of industry and partial privatization of their
version of Social Security all while being attacked
by communist guerilla insurgents. A free market
includes many factors. Chile is still a mixed
economy at best.

I wrote:

> There is plenty of fuel for hybrid
> fission/fusion reactors on Mars, billions of years worth of fuel at
> minimum.

Ryan Healey wrote:

>Will we even manage to get fusion beyond breakeven?

Hybrid fission/fusion reactors and breeder reactors
are used in concert. The theory was worked out by Edward
Teller and company more than ten years ago. Break
even is assured, technological implementation is the
only real question. There are no roadblocks or
unknown plasma instability problems like in present
fusion only programs.

Dennis May