About a year ago, I read a news story about a proposal to give every citizen in Switzerland $2800 as a basic income. I remember talking about this with my progressive friends and to my surprise I was the only one who really thought this was a great idea. Sure, critics could easily point out that idea would obviously sound great to me because I am a stay-at-home dad who works a part-time retail job making slightly above minimum wage, but that isn’t why I actually liked the idea.
There was a time when people lived clustered in groups and the various groups had to compete for food, fertile land, and resources. They didn’t have much communication with those from other groups and so it was easy to see other groups as alien. Each group marked their territory and attempted to conquer other territories. Things should be different now.
According to a recent article on NPR’s website, the Russians are threatening to shut down a number of GPS ground stations and stop sharing their RD-180 and NK-33 rockets with the United States. For those who have forgotten, the United States has shut down NASA’s Space Shuttle program and currently relies on Russia for all our space travel needs. This means that hostilities with Russia will leave the United States spaceless.