🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan5.214143.21291@ke4zv.uucp> gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman) writes:
>>I agree that, other things being equal (an important precondition!), free
>>societies are more efficient than command economies.  Nobody has yet tried
>>building a space program on free enterprise.
>
>That's because nobody can show a high enough return on investment to
>interest private capital markets...

That's not actually a prerequisite.  I worded my posting carefully. :-)

A fully private space program would have to show a return on investment,
although just how high, and how soon, depends on who's doing the investing:
Ross Perot could probably fund his own small space program without having
to convince anyone but himself that it was a good idea.

However, you can build a space program *on* free enterprise without having
to find private money to get it started.  Government funding *can* be used
to build free enterprise rather than bypass it.  Buy services, not hardware.
Specify objectives, not methods.  Pay for results, not for attempts.  Give
market guarantees, not subsidies.

It worked for aviation.
-- 
"God willing... we shall return."       | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
       -Gene Cernan, the Moon, Dec 1972 |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry