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Asteroids
Ironically, we spend very little on one of the few public goods that I support, asteroid detection and deflection. Even among the strange group that I interact with, this predilection of mine about avoiding asteroids is considered a little odd. But consider that the probability of being killed by an asteroid collision is about the same as being killed in a commercial airplane disaster - small, but all of humanity is aboard that plane.
Assuming there are enough of us around after a hit, I can just see the commission now.
Q. Why was our government woefully unprepared to prevent the deaths of millions of citizens and world-wide devastation?
A. We had only vague, historical information.
Q. What about 2002 EM7?
A. That was a previous administration.
Q. What about 2004 FH
A. NASA did not provide us with a specific threat.
Q. Didn't you know about Tunguska?
A. That was a foreign threat.
Much more information, with plenty of references, comes from Randall Parker, the far-seeing Future Pundit, who actually works on things like asteroid detection.
Posted by Alex Tabarrok on April 19, 2004 at 07:55 AM in Economics, Science | Permalink
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