Race for space travel—a seemingly vulgar display of wealth - Happytrips

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The race to space is happening right now. 2021 has certainly brought us closer to the possibility of space travel, but it is only reserved for the super-wealthy for now. Jeff Bezos, the Founder and Chairman of Amazon, recently took to space in his rocket that was built by his company Blue Origin. The entire journey took 11 minutes. Back on Earth, his address has not been welcomed by people.

Bezos went on to thank Amazon employees and customers for paying for his trip to space, sparking backlash and controversies. He said, “I want to thank every Amazon employee, and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this.”

Robert Reich, former secretary of labour, and professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley wrote on twitter, "Amazon workers don’t need Bezos to thank them. They need him to stop union-busting — and pay them what they deserve."

At this point in time, space travel certainly feels like a rich-man’s game, and the question of whether it shall be open for the general public still remains. Given that the cost of such travels can be extremely high, common folks will certainly not be able to afford space travel.

This begs the question whether space travel is going to be reserved for rich men such as Bezos, who are travelling into space for the kicks, paid for by his employees. Bezos paid $5.5 billion for a 11-minute space trip, out of which only 4 minutes were spent in space.

Is it a vulgar display of wealth? Well, a number of netizens think so.

While that can be a tough one to answer, people opine that the money could have easily gone into something more productive here on earth, given the fact that we are living in such uncertain times, battling against a devastating pandemic. Poor countries are still struggling to vaccinate their citizens. Moreover, the space trip has no scientific value in any way.

Earl Blumeanuer, a member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, has proposed that space travel for non-scientific purposes must be taxed. After all, we pay for plane tickets, so why must billionaires fly to space tax-free?

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"vulgar" - Google News
July 26, 2021 at 03:41PM
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Race for space travel—a seemingly vulgar display of wealth - Happytrips
"vulgar" - Google News
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