Saturday, April 10, 2010

Interesting quote about the source of economic progress in the US

This quote really focuses on the difference between NASA and New Space:

The economic miracle that has been the United States was not produced by socialized enterprises, by government-union-industry cartels or by centralized economic planning. It was produced by private enterprises in a profit-and-loss system. And losses were at least as important in weeding out failures as profits in fostering successes. Let government succor failures, and we shall be headed for stagnation and decline.
-Milton Friedman

Sitting here in the middle of Space Access 2010 it is a stark contrast. These small companies with often less than a dozen people are making progress and will be soon putting average people into space, in large numbers. On the other hand NASA has spent billions of dollars and only sent a few people into space.

(Hat tip Dan Galvin's Thought For The Day mailing list)


----------
Technorati tags: economic, progress, Dan Galvin

No comments: