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Space Travel For the 1%: Virgin Galactic's $250,000 Tickets Haunt New Mexico Town
The Real Dr John writes: The Guardian has an article about Virgin Galactic's proposed launch site, Spaceport America, which broke ground in southern New Mexico's high desert in 2009 with almost a quarter of a billion dollars from taxpayers, $76m of which came from the two local counties. Truth or Consequences, population 6,000 and home to the Spaceport America Visitor Center, is one of the poorest places in the state. The increased taxes, adopted across impoverished Sierra County, contributed to about $5m as of 2014. Since 2009, state school budgets have been cut and an estimated $26m in necessary repairs to the town's water system has been put on hold. There's no more money to pay for it. The average annual income of residents is just $15,000 per year, one third of residents live below the poverty line, and just 20% over the age of 25 have obtained a bachelor's degree.
So they're being nice and giving them jobs to build the spaceport. They're paying them in the dollars they stole from them.
These people don't want a spaceport and they'll derive absolutely zero value from it. It'll likely close within a year when the 1%ers get bored and want their $10mil jetpacks. This site will turn into a superfund site and they'll likely source the funding to decommission it and clean up the leached toxic fuel from the same state coffers. What's more the medical nightmare spawned from that superfund site will leave civilian casualties, spikes in cancers, growth problems and an all-manner of maladies. Those medical cases will have the local hospitals grubbing even more money out of the underemployed population.
So, basically: If's a fuck-you, followed by a fooled-you, followed by a sucks-to-be-you, followed by a fuck-you-and-die.
We should maybe aspire to something greater than a 3000 year old model?
Sadly, most people think the big government they keep voting for is there to help them, not to help those who buy the politicians they vote for. With enemies like the left, the 1% don't need friends.