Would we have landed on the moon in a libertarian republic?

[Optatron]

what benefit have we gotten from the moon landing? Better food? Better computers? Less poverty?

 

[tmosley]

what benefit have we gotten from the moon landing? Better food? Better computers? Less poverty?

Mineral wealth. A place with light gravity and a nice view of Earth for visitation or homesteading. He-3 (fuel for fusion reactors).

Other than that, not much. It's probably enough for a few humans in permanent residence, possibly a lot of them for any mining operations.

 

[Optatron]

Mineral wealth. A place with light gravity and a nice view of Earth for visitation or homesteading. He-3 (fuel for fusion reactors).

Other than that, not much. It's probably enough for a few humans in permanent residence, possibly a lot of them for any mining operations.

i think whatever profit you can imagine from being on the moon, you can make much quicker and easier exploiting 3rd world labor.

 

[Working Poor]

I think a libertarian republic would go to the moon. I also think there would be much better energy technologies. Because the scientist would not have been threatened and killed when they came up with new energy plans.

I think Nicola Tesla's wireless technology would have been implemented in the 30's. If he had been treated like the treasure that he was in stead of some "thing" to exploit and use he may have gotten us to the moon a couple of decades ahead of when we did go.

 

[Knighted]

I always found it interesting how NASA and in particular the moon landing seemed sort of "untouchable" in most circles, even in the libertarian ones. It's one of the biggest examples of government spending that has yielded very little practically, yet most people still seem to think it was a good thing - even though all we really got out of it was a warm, fuzzy feeling of accomplishment. It's kind of like climbing Mount Everest, but spending billions to do so. Once you're at the top, what do you have to show for it except an invisible ego medal? I wonder if there was any real opposition at the time from either party when Kennedy announced that we were going to put a man on the moon.

 

[fj45lvr]

If there were something willing to be mined there than maybe.....

Anyone know if they found the original moon tapes that Nasa reportedly "lost"???

 

[Conza88]

Yes. There is a market for it if you haven't noticed...

And that market would be bigger, space flight cheaper, more accessible... if the government got the fck out of the way...

Think of every single product that goes into it.. the fuel, parts, plastic, oil, whatever...

All of it - taxed to high heaven.. then you have taxes on labor, capital, payroll... list is endless..

More than likely yes, and FAR CHEAPER...

"Here’s something to lighten the mood. The first privately-funded and privately-developed rocket, Falcon 1, has successfully made it into space. Falcon 1 was developed by SpaceX, a space-transportation startup company founded by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk. Eight minutes after launch, Falcon 1 reached a speed of 5200 meters per second and passed above the International Space Station. Pretty cool."

YouTube - Success SpaceX Falcon 1 - Flight 4 - September 28, 2008

 

[Optatron]

Yes. There is a market for it if you haven't noticed...

And that market would be bigger, space flight cheaper, more accessible... if the government got the fck out of the way...

Think of every single product that goes into it.. the fuel, parts, plastic, oil, whatever...

All of it - taxed to high heaven.. then you have taxes on labor, capital, payroll... list is endless..

More than likely yes, and FAR CHEAPER...

"Here’s something to lighten the mood. The first privately-funded and privately-developed rocket, Falcon 1, has successfully made it into space. Falcon 1 was developed by SpaceX, a space-transportation startup company founded by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk. Eight minutes after launch, Falcon 1 reached a speed of 5200 meters per second and passed above the International Space Station. Pretty cool."

YouTube - Success SpaceX Falcon 1 - Flight 4 - September 28, 2008

there still IS a market.

It's called competition coming from Russia and other countries, go dump your money there if you like.

 

[Objectivist]

Yeah, we would have landed on the moon, because government regulation would not have prevented private companies from doing so. Remember NASA is a private/public organization and there would have been a desire by someone to go. There'd be more wealth in the private sector to do it and it would have cost far less if the government wasn't involved.

 

[Objectivist]

ANother point to make is most of the advancements in technologies in the last 50 years directly relate to the space program. We gained far more than Tang by going into space.

 

[Objectivist]

I could have saved some time if I had read Conza's post first. LOL

 

[Mini-Me]

In a nutshell, it depends on how many people wanted to land on the moon and just how badly they wanted it.

To expand a bit: In a libertarian republic, the free market would have diverted that money towards things which were more in demand (i.e. in need of funding and resources) at the time...which probably means living expenses and consumer luxuries. As people became wealthier and accumulated more money for discretionary spending, various charities and non-profit organizations would have started to see a large increase in donations. Some of these organizations would have been (and would be) hobby or interest-based (just like many organizations are today), and I have no doubt that someone would have eventually started a private analogue of NASA, had no quasi-government agency been created for that purpose. Its funding would have been directly proportional to just how much people cared about it. Because of that, we probably wouldn't have landed on the moon in the sixties, but I'm pretty certain we would've gotten there by now.

Of course, that's completely aside from any potential economic benefits to space exploration. In a free market, after productive capacity advanced to the point where people's short-term interests were well-taken care of, investment opportunities would start to drift towards long-term profitability, and that includes developing technologies to exploit the vast resources outside of our little planet (whether for tourism, manufacturing, colonization, or whatever...).

 

[Conza88]

there still IS a market.

Yeah, that's what I said. Pay attention..

It's called competition coming from Russia and other countries, go dump your money there if you like.

http://www.space.com/news/051121_spacedev.html

Private Sector, Low-Cost Lunar Plan Unveiled
By Leonard David

Benson also noted: "We are not surprised by the significant cost savings that our study concludes can be achieved without sacrificing safety and mission support."

"If we are correct about our lunar mission cost estimates, our type of human mission could have forty people visiting the Moon for the cost of NASA's first mission," Benson concluded.

Ohhh look... government just lost..

 

[Pauls' Revere]

If we were a libertarian republic, we'd have advanced at a far higher rate. And more importantly, we'd be happier and free.
Private individuals, if I recall correctly, aren't allowed to launch rockets into space without the government permission.

Had a libertarian society existed for the past 1000 years, then we probably would be on the moon for vacations.

I concur,
A Libertarian Republic would have let a privately funded organization/individual go there if they wanted,perhaps a space agency co-op? I dont imagine a Libertarian Republic funding such an endeavor as a governing body. But I think it's also oxymoronic to put Libertarian and Government in the same sentance.