Mission to Mars
Some time ago, InstaPundit
had a link
up about the current state
of the space program vis-a-vis its past failed initiatives. The price tag
of sending a pound of payload into space is so great, and building a new
space vehicle an even more daunting task, that our space program has been
stuck in a rut for two decades. When was the last time anyone was excited
about the space program? The space station was cool at first but is largely
a political experiment doomed for failure because our partners are not
ready for such a commitment. I think most of us would agree that Americans
are still up to the task to meet almost any objective, if the will is there.
Given the loss of high-tech, high-paying jobs that aren’t coming back (even
if Kerry is elected) and the impending flood of jobs out of the country,
America needs a new direction. Not because the old way is bad, or is broken,
or unfair even, but because times have changed and are changing even faster
every day. Already we have a couple, maybe three giant sectors that will
help take America into the future:
> Primary Health Care
> Primary Education
> Small Businesses
These broad sectors are safe for the near term, but as this
whimsical discussion of health care illustrates, the ever increasing advancements
in technology will allow more and more services to be provided over the
internet. Everyone will have access to the internet via high-speed wireless
on their wristphone/PC. More and more utilization of service providers
from around the world, from accountants to doctors, is going to leave a
lot of skilled, middle-aged people looking for something to do. In the
not-so-longer term, as virtual face-to-face meetings become ubiquitous,
the vast amount of consultative, diagnostic-type primary health care will
move over-seas. I think personal diagnostic medical equipment interfaced
with your PC combined with secure personal web portals will be as common
as, well, the internet is today. No more trips to the doctor unless you
need surgery. No more trips to the pharmacy unless they are having a sale
on film processing… oops, did I say film processing. Not!… regular
pharmacies have regular film processing, I’d imagine overnight pharmacies
will have overnight film delivery as well. If the pharmacies dont, someone
will.