space travel or war

Every modern depression, recession, business panic and collapse was
preceded by military action in the modern age - from the Civil War
forward.


That happens because wars are not only very costly, but they destroy
things like factories and tools and farms and kill they people, those
people
who know how to do things like use factories tools and farms to make
stuff.

Every boom, every cycle of achievement, every success in modern
history was preceded by a technical development or expansion and
settlement of a frontier.

We have the means, and have had the means for the past 60 years, to do
anything we wanted in the Solar System at costs that are affordable to
our industry, and at risks acceptable to the vast majority of explorer
personalities.

So, why haven't we developed the solar system and brought about the
largest most sustained economic boom in history?

The answer is; we have adopted policies that prepare us for nuclear
war, these policies are diametrically opposed to the development of
commercial nuclear propulsion and power for low cost space travel and
off-world development.

We seek to control the proliferation of knowledge about missiles and
nuclear weapons. We seek to maintain favorable disparities of income
so that others find it difficult to afford missile and nuclear
technologies. We hope that with this combination of policies we can
maintain the peace.

But those who promoted these policies in the 1950s - felt that they
would not be sustainable for more than 50 years. They were right. In
2001 - the United States suffered another devastating surprise attack,
spelling the end of the control paradigm established so long ago.
Meanwhile, nations as meager economically as Pakistan and North Korea
have both missiles and nuclear weapons. Loose nukes flow out of the
former Soviet states into the hands of terrorists who have vowed to
use them against the United States in retribution for saddling them
with what they feel are unfair economic, political, and military
structures that help the US while hurting their country-men.
Americans are told that the terrorists hate our freedom. They are not
told that terrorists more than anything, hate the way they believe we
attain our freedoms.

At the end of world war two the United States knew it could not
sustain another surprise attack in the nuclear age. A single
overwhelming attack with nuclear weapons has the potential to decimate
the nation in an afternoon, and reduce it to a condition it cannot
recover from. So the War Department vowed to not let that happen and
take whatever steps were needed to keep that from happening. To this
end we instituted policies that;

1) reorganized the War Department into a single integrated
Department of Defense. The US abandoned its military following world
war one, so it was felt that a constant war footing was needed to
avoid that in the future, to this end, the War Department was renamed
the Department of Defense - to reflect its ongoing commitment to
maintain US nuclear and non-nuclear forces - national defense became
the top priority for the nation.

2) reorganized the office of strategic services into the Central
Intelligence Agency. The US recognized that battles and wars and
challenges it could avoid through secret action were battles it could
win cheaply allowing it to focus resources on more important areas.
The entire world was not only monitored, but also infiltrated and
where possible controlled to maintain political and economic
conditions favorable to the United States. This was recognized as
being offensive to the US people as well as our commitments to other
nations, so was kept secret until the downing of Gary Powers. At that
time, the US media began portraying very positive heroic images of
spys, spying, and secret agents - while avoiding any real serious
discussion of the CIA and other intelligence operations within the US
or elsewhere, and while marginalizing any view that was not the
mainstream medai view.

3) adopted policies to restrict and control missile, nuclear and
space technologies to maintain United States lead, and deny these
technologies to others.

4) adopted economic policies that maintained a large disparity of
income between others and the United States through natural working
out of markets and promoted the view that the US is superior because
it is naturally better than all others while avoiding a clear and
frank explanation of what we were doing and why - either within the
United States, or with others in the world community.
a) the purpose of this policy derives from the observation that a
rich nation is better able to defend itself from a poor nation than
the poor nation from the rich. It also derives from the fact that a
constant war footing is costly. So, by creating a trading regime that
is favorable to the United States, we are imposing a sort of market
based tax on the rest of the world and using our control of the media
through Hollywood and advertising, along with CIA help, to promote the
facile explanations while ignoring any real in depth analysis - or
marginalizing that analysis that does not portray the US in the light
it wishes to be portrayed.
b) the mechanism of this policy derives from the observation that
store owners make more money than skilled craftsmen, and skilled
craftsmen make more money than farmers and miners. So, while a gold
rush into a region might make a few men millionaires in gold, the vast
majority work for starvation wages in the hopes of becoming a
millionaire, while the sure winners are the craftsmen that build
stuff, and the store owners that sell the stuff to them. This 19th
century economic model was used to organize the world so that the US
would always play the role of store owner, while our allies became our
skilled craftsmen, and the hopeful miners and farmers working at
starvation wages, would supply our raw materials. Our enemies would
be excluded from this setup, and targeted by the CIA to destabilize
them.

As I said, this whole setup works in the short run. It is unstable in
the long-run.

At the time these policies were adopted this was pointed out to
leaders, but those who held this view were marginalized by those who
would benefit by the adoption of these policies, and their view held
sway.

The adopted policies almost immediately began to harm the United
States economy, and to harm the United States preimminent geopolitical
position following the war.

To become a nation of store owners that relied on our allies to build
things for us, we had to direct investments away from the US
manufacturers and toward foreign manufacturers. This got rid of the
skilled craftsmen in the US, and any discussion of reorganizing 19th
century patterns of wages and rewards - which was labelled communist
or socialist - even if it was soundly based in changing patterns of
the labor markets due to changes in technology.

These policies were adopted in 1958 and by 1963 we switched from being
exporters to importers as more manufacturing moved overseas. By 1968
our currency was under great pressure as people sold us goods and we
had no goods to sell in return. By 1973 we were off the gold standard
and interest rates were out of control as inflation took its
inevitable toll. By 1978 savings and loans collapsed, home ownership
rates among the poorest of Americans fell, and homelessness became an
issue, while large capital intensive projects became too costly to
build due to high interest rates. It is impossible to write a low
interest loan if the dollars you are repaying with are worth far less
than the dollars you are borrowing. It is impossible to have a stable
currency if you are using that currency to buy things and offer
nothing in return. By 1983 the establishment of a global stock
trading system brought an influx of cash into the United States as
foreigners used their spare cash to buy stocks, but fear of foreign
ownership brought restrictions that did not fix the underlying
weakness in the US economy and by 1988 the US suffered a stock market
crash larger than that in 1929. By 1993 the US was targeted for
attack by terror groups spun off from its CIA operations against the
Russians in Afghanistan, and by 2001 - a successful attack took place
on US soil. A terror nuclear attack is a real possibility, and if
God forbid, one is carried out successfully, the US economy will be
decimated. Looking at relative debt to equity of US currency - and US
economy - the US is about 2x and perhaps as much as 6x overvalued. A
successful terror nuke against a major financial center may cause the
US to be undervalued - especially if orchestrated by those who no
longer respect or value the US (if they ever did) - mainly - Europe,
Saudi Arabia, and China - working in concert, to dump US debt -
reducing economic potential of Americans by a factor of 20 or more.
,
This need not happen.

We could have taken a different route.

We still could. Here is the alternative history

1) reorganized the War Department into a Peace Department,
recognizing that in the nuclear age, we must get at the root causes of
war and eliminate them in order to maintain safety and security of all
Americans. The US abandoned its military following world war one, but
it took no steps to assure itself that the Pease would be maintained.
So a constant effort to actively maintain peace was needed to avoid
war in the future, to this end, the War Department is renamed the
Peace Department - to reflect its ongoing commitment to maintain US
nuclear free and use its non-nuclear forces to maintain global peace -
world peace became the top priority for the nation.

2) reorganized the office of strategic services into the Central
Intelligence Agency. The US recognized that battles and wars and
challenges it could avoid through secret action were battles that
could become flashpoints for war. Allowing it to focus resources
efficiently in areas that promoted its larger peaceful vision. The
entire world was not only monitored, but also infiltrated and where
possible controlled to maintain political and economic conditions
favorable to world peace. This was recognized as being offensive to
the US people as well as our commitments to other nations, so was kept
secret until the accumulated successes at maintaining peace and
prosperity around the world could no longer be contained, and resulted
in a general understanding and acceptance of this action. Secret
agents and spies naturally became heroic figures.

3) adopted policies to direct missile, nuclear and space technologies
to develop off world resources and a new frontier for all humanity.

4) adopted economic policies that maintained a large rate of economic
growth and reduced disparity of income among nations through growth.
The United States became first among equals through natural working
out of markets and promoted the view that the US is no better than any
other nation, but was committed to equality and liberty for all.
While not promoting itself as superior the US became a model of
toleration and growth widely adopted. (Ho Chi Minh went to the
University of Pennsylvania and used the US Constitution to organize
Vietnam. He only turned to Communist after US sided with the French)
Any difficulties that arise result in a clear and frank explanation of
what we were doing and why - within the United States, or with others
in the world community - and our unwavering commitment to world peace
and prosperity.

a) the purpose of this policy derives from the observation that a
rich nation is best loved by a poorer nation if that rich nation
provides themeans for that poorer nation to better itself. It also
derives from the fact that a constant war footing is costly. So, by
creating a peaceful geopolitical environment, costs are reduced for
both parties and greater growth is possible. a trading regime that is
fair and balanced to all parties - create real and lasting connections
that make peace inevitable and war impossible. Being careful not to
impose any sort of market based tax on the rest of the world provide
real in depth analysis of relative advantages and how to manage them
to maintain the greatest prosperity for all and enlarge the basis for
peace

b) the mechanism of this policy derives from the observation that
free people play many roles in a free economy to create real value.
Store owners can also be skilled craftsmen, and skilled craftsmen can
also farms and mine. So, while a gold rush into a region might make a
few men millionaires in gold, others are free to find the highest best
value in a free market, while all become sure winners no matter what
the need or opportunities. This 19th century economic models of the
past are moot. The world is organized along peace, prosperity and
freedom. The obvious shortage of commodities is used to organize
research and development of new sources while all participate
maximally, and no one is excluded or allowed to become destabilized by
misfortune..

In this environment off world resources are developed and the frontier
of interplanetary space enriches and enlarges our world - united in
peace and prosperity - while the United States rises to very high
regard around the world as the creator of this new world and is highly
honored for it, while the US itself, insists that if it is first, it
is first among equals.


.

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