Cost of Living

[DerekG52]

So this is the classic "problem of the commons": population control is needed for the good of the entire world, but bad for the individual state actors. Therefore, it's extremely hard to take the collective action needed to solve the problem.

I think therein lies the problem, there is no incentive as an individual state to do it unless there is a direct consequence for failing to comply. It reminds me of a Nash equilibrium, the only unknown being the payout of the suboptimal solution (no strategy change by anyone).

[GSZX1337]

Shit, my Personal Financing Class lied to me. I could've sworn that the return was 5-10%.

Either they lied or you were mistaken in your recollection. A few years ago, the best CDs were giving in the neighborhood of 4.5%.

Hmm, that might be it. The books at my school were pretty old and the teacher rarely did anything other than show us slides. Those slides were usually taken straight from the book, too.

[MrPopo]

You know, we could always just fund more space research and send the excess population to the moon/Mars. We just need to make it a bit more cost effective.

Or how about underwater cities? It'll be like Bioshock!

[Jrecee]

After the economic meltdown I'm not sure how confident I am in making money off interest.

[vash23n]

You know, we could always just fund more space research and send the excess population to the moon/Mars. We just need to make it a bit more cost effective.

Or how about underwater cities? It'll be like Bioshock!

Not sure if you know this and are making a joke, but I did hear that Obama is increasing funding to NASA and wants us to reach Mars by 2030. There may be more specifics and I may have some details wrong, but that is the gist of it. I think this is great. I am a big fan of space exploration and have always been obsessed with it. With all the issues on this planet it is practical too. If we want the species to survive long term without halting research into finding a cure for cancer and other diseases that could limit population growth, this is the only reasonable step. Personally, I am only really excited to see what mysteries Mars holds. We don't have the technology to make a livable environment for massive amounts of people on another planet anyway so I guess Mars is safe for now. Hawkings was right when he said the only workable solution is to find a planet exactly like Earth - so we need to work on faster forms of space travel unless we just set out Saga of Seven Suns or Pandorum style.

[Jrecee]

2030? Pfft. Kennedy came in and said we're going to the moon by the end of the decade. 2020 or bust I say.

[dedalusdedalus]

2030? Pfft. Kennedy came in and said we're going to the moon by the end of the decade. 2020 or bust I say.

Yeah, we're so behind on space colonization that it's depressing. Remember "2001: A Space Odyssey?"

That novel/movie predicted full-fledged moon colonies by 2001. All we got was the internet.

[Jrecee]

2030? Pfft. Kennedy came in and said we're going to the moon by the end of the decade. 2020 or bust I say.

Yeah, we're so behind on space colonization that it's depressing. Remember "2001: A Space Odyssey?"

That novel/movie predicted full-fledged moon colonies by 2001. All we got was the internet.

Yeah, but who needs moon colonies when we've got this:

[vash23n]

2030? Pfft. Kennedy came in and said we're going to the moon by the end of the decade. 2020 or bust I say.

Uh oh, raising the bar!

[Ack]

You know, we could always just fund more space research and send the excess population to the moon/Mars. We just need to make it a bit more cost effective.

Or how about underwater cities? It'll be like Bioshock!

Not sure if you know this and are making a joke, but I did hear that Obama is increasing funding to NASA and wants us to reach Mars by 2030. There may be more specifics and I may have some details wrong, but that is the gist of it. I think this is great. I am a big fan of space exploration and have always been obsessed with it. With all the issues on this planet it is practical too. If we want the species to survive long term without halting research into finding a cure for cancer and other diseases that could limit population growth, this is the only reasonable step. Personally, I am only really excited to see what mysteries Mars holds. We don't have the technology to make a livable environment for massive amounts of people on another planet anyway so I guess Mars is safe for now. Hawkings was right when he said the only workable solution is to find a planet exactly like Earth - so we need to work on faster forms of space travel unless we just set out Saga of Seven Suns or Pandorum style.

Hawkings also stated that the only way to guarantee the continuance of humanity was to colonize worlds beyond our galaxy.

Personally, I feel space has been widely neglected. I'm very interested in space colonization. I'm also interested in the growing civilian space travel market that has started seeing backing from NASA...