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From: ccoprmd@prism.gatech.EDU (Matthew DeLuca)
Newsgroups: sci.space,rec.video.satellite
Subject: Re: Access to Space
Message-ID: <31559@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 18 Jun 91 23:32:22 GMT
References: <31516@hydra.gatech.EDU> <1991Jun18.172719.26033@sequent.com> <31548@hydra.gatech.EDU> <1991Jun18.215511.29612@sequent.com>
Followup-To: sci.space
Organization: The Dorsai Grey Captains
Lines: 50

In article <1991Jun18.215511.29612@sequent.com> szabo@sequent.com writes:
>In article <31548@hydra.gatech.EDU> ccoprmd@prism.gatech.EDU (Matthew DeLuca) writes:

>>Communications satellites are a service.  The service sector of the 
>>economy does not create signifigant real wealth, 

>If the ability to communicate instantly across the planet does not
>constitute "wealth", what does?   My particular business, Sequent,
>would lose over half of its revenues if we couldn't talk and send
>faxes to our European offices via satellite.

If you couldn't talk to Europe instantaneously, would the demand for 
computers in Europe be less?  No, there would just be two companies 
instead of one, or several companies.  All advanced communications allows
Sequent to do is expand the scope of its operations.  It does not actually
create wealth.

(Considering our experiences with the Sequent I am on now, cutting your 
satellite links might be a good idea...but that's another article. :-)

>Perhaps we could also say that steel mills and airplanes don't 
>create real wealth, because that's merely manufacturing and 
>transportation.  Only farms that make food are real wealth. 
>Ad absurdum.

Manufacturing indeed creates wealth, as it adds value to something.  What
does a comsat add value to?  Airplanes don't create wealth, either, they 
just provide a service.

>I find your arguments quite astounding.  Perhaps what you are really
>trying to say is that, because the industry does not employ astronauts,
>you don't care about it?

Perhaps you have a hole in your head, too.

Where did I say I do not care about the communications satellites?  I think
they're a great idea.  I am taking issue with your statement that comsats
are a self-sustaining industry, because they're only industry in the loosest
sense of the word.  Asteroid mining (manned or unmanned) would create wealth.
Space-based materials processing would create wealth.  Solar power satellites
would create wealth.  Communications satellites don't create wealth.  Do you 
see what I am getting at?

You've gotten into a rut on your anti-astronaut crusade...it's starting to 
color your perceptions of other people's articles.
-- 
Matthew DeLuca                   
Georgia Institute of Technology      "I'd hire the Dorsai, if I knew their
Office of Information Technology      P.O. box."  - Zebadiah Carter,
Internet: ccoprmd@prism.gatech.edu    _The Number of the Beast_