Image by penguinbush via FlickrJFK famously sent a man to the moon. When George W Bush became president he imitated JFK. He said he wanted to send a man to Mars. Like Texas were the earth, the moon was Louisiana, and Mars perhaps was Alabama. Not so. Barack Obama ratcheted it down a little. He said maybe not Mars, maybe an asteroid.
That was a mistake. In an era when countries are struggling to even occupy the space between the moon and the earth, a manned mission to Mars is an out of place metaphor.
The mission to the Moon was less about the mission to the moon. It was more about the technological fallouts that benefitted the population at large.
The mission to the moon today would be to take gigabit broadband to every human being on earth. That goal should have been the centerpiece of the stimulus bill of 2009. And it is still not too late. Maybe there will be a push for it in 2013.
Be it global finance, or global warming, or global poverty, or lifelong education or universal health, or global terrorism, universal gigabit broadband touches them all.
America, Europe and Japan might have to pitch in 100 billion dollars each. And that is money that will get paid back in spades. So this is not a foreign aid concept. This is an investment with great returns.
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