Today is the anniversary of the first spaceflight of SpaceShipOne. At the time, everyone expected its successor to be flying passengers before the decade was out. As we now know, that was over-optimistic, for a variety of reasons. But here are my blog posts from the event at the time.
Category Archives: Economics
The #JourneyToMars
…seems to be pretty much dead.
#JourneyToMars was never alive.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) June 20, 2017
California’s Minimum Wage
It’s already devastating the restaurant industry, and it hasn’t even fully kicked in yet:
Christopher Thornberg, director of UC Riverside’s Center for Economic Forecasting and Development, told the San Bernardino Sun that politicians should have adopted a regional approach. He said it would been better to adapt minimum-wage levels to varying economies – something like the Oregon model, the nation’s first multi-tiered minimum-wage strategy.
Oregon’s minimum-wage law is phased, with increases over six years. By 2022, the minimum will be $14.75 an hour in Portland, $13.50 in midsize counties and $12.50 in rural areas.
“That makes sense,” Thornberg told the Sun. “That’s logical.”
California is even more varied economically than Oregon. Thornberg believes hiking wages in blanket fashion will spark layoffs and edge low-skilled workers out of the job market.
It’s not “logical.” It’s just slightly less insane. And this is why a federal minimum wage is even more insane.
Elon And Mars
He’s published his plan.
I haven’t read it yet, but then, I don’t care much about Mars.
Our Failed Political Class And “Elites”
Some links and thoughts from Instapundit:
We need to take a serious look at how we select these people. Our current method is not working.
Well, it’s working for them. For now.
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, Bob Mueller is looking worse and worse:
Four top lawyers hired by Mueller have contributed tens of thousands of dollars over the years to the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates, including former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump’s 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton.
One of the hires, Jeannie Rhee, also worked as a lawyer for the Clinton Foundation and helped persuade a federal judge to block a conservative activist’s attempts to force Bill and Hillary Clinton to answer questions under oath about operations of the family-run charity.
Campaign-finance reports show that Rhee gave Clinton the maximum contributions of $2,700 in 2015 and again last year to support her presidential campaign. She also donated $2,300 to Obama in 2008 and $2,500 in 2011. While still at the Justice Department, she gave $250 to the Democratic National Committee Services Corp.
Rhee also has contributed to a trio of Democratic senators: Mark Udall of New Mexico, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
Congress should ask him to testify about this.
Renewable Energy
Some former officials are alarmed at Trump’s proposed cuts at DoE.
I don’t have a problem with R&D, but if this is cutting subsidies (particularly like Solyndra), slash away.
The Air Force’s Overkill Problem
How much would it cost to just mass produce some WW II warbirds for this sort of thing? A P-40 with its six fifties would easily take out this stuff.
A Stupid Quiz
This is stupid. Ignores issue of where to get power for electric cars, and that a plant-based diet isn't healthy. https://t.co/AGZzNG3Xmv
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) June 12, 2017
It also assumes that the only potential future energy sources are solar or wind. Completely ignores nuclear.
Private Space Exploration
There was an interesting conference in New York last week (that I would have liked to attend if it had been in my budget). It’s still hard to raise money for it, because modern philanthropists don’t know the history
[Update a while later]
Sorry, added missing link.
U.S. Air Traffic Control
My friend Bob Poole (who has been advocating this for almost half a century) says it’s time to get it out of the sixties.