US gubmint shutdown + default + subprime sequel?

[Adrian II]

As silly as it sounds, exploration and colonization of Mars would lead to advances in solar energy, recycling, composites, and etc.

And we don't have to wait till we get there, we can start right now.

Sadly, habit is a real bitch. I remember doing an article about a difficult transport project in the Neds some years back. One of the engineers suggested that instead of building bridges and fly-overs and stuff over some soft grounds, they should build a giant tunnel right underneath. You're out of your mind, they all said, it's too costly, we've never even done that. He said: Sure, it's gonna cost ten times the budget we have now, but over the next 25 years anybody in the whole wide world who wants a tunnel underneath a swamp, be they Scottish, Russian or Japanese, is gonna call us. Because nobody has ever done it. And we're gonna make a lot of money.

So they went and build the bridges and crap. And they still went over their budget.

Growth is the answer but why grow?

I think lemur's remarks about investment bankers go some way toward explaining why growth is in disrepute. The article I referred shows a similar reason why. But in the main it's environmentalism and sustainability what did it. They gave us guilt and disinvestment and pandaworship. Oh, and luke-warm soda's.

AII