Ada King '24
The privatization of space has the potential to create the world's first trillionaires. Although the privatization of space technology is leading to new innovations, it also leaves the resources of space open to privatization as well. This privatization could lead to a select few nations or even a select few companies with developed space exploration programs.
The privatization of space technology at this point is mostly sustained through government funded programs or collaborations. Until private companies see a plausible and prompt return on their capital investment, the private sector will mostly be limited to low earth orbit endeavors. With NASA funding public-private partnerships with the goal to, “bring the technology to market for both government and commercial applications”, profitable commercial space mining and exploration may be closer on the horizon than previously thought.
After a decade of intense competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for aeronautical supremacy, the United Nations created the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, informally known as the Outer Space Treaty. Article 1 of this treaty states that, “The exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development, and shall be the province of all mankind.” As the private sector gains dominance and autonomy over government programs, profit may become the driving force of technological advancement. Asteroid mining, space tourism, and artificial satellite launching (think SpaceX’s Starlink) seem to be in contradiction with the UN’s characterization of space as “the common heritage of mankind.” Commercial use of space in the U.S. is protected by the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act which is meant to, “facilitate the commercial exploration for and commercial recovery of space resources by U.S. citizens.” Instead of the fair and equal distribution of profits derived from space endeavors, which in turn could help develop space technology in underdeveloped nations, the U.S. has prepared to break the treaty. They’ve done this by redefining “mankind” as a select few American multibillionaires
In the 70s, a trend began among large corporations: slash wages in the U.S. and outsource labor to countries in which capital has not been devalued as much, paying those international workers as little as possible. The reason that the rate of profit tends to fall is because the value of a commodity is initially set by the socially necessary labour time taken to produce it. That value tends to fall as productivity rises, or if, conversely, the surplus value rises from the same productivity while wages are cut. Widespread wage-cuts are problematic because they reduce the spending power of workers who create the demand for commodities. In order to make up for this decrease, credit is used. These credit markets are supported by the government (2008 bank bailout, 1.5 trillion put into “overnight repo operations, etc.) which leads to a large amount of citizens going into debt — half of adults in the U.S. — with many resorting to defaulting. Eventually this leads to an institutional failure, like the American International Group bail out. Thus begins the process of accumulation by dispossession, a theory expanded by David Harvey. If the economy in which this sequence of events had taken place has not already collapsed, the capital of said economy must find a way outside of the collapsed market in which to use it’s surplus value to create more profit than possible in it’s base economy. This place situated outside of the collapsed or near-collapsed economy is called a spatial fix, a term coined, also, by David Harvey. Historically, this spatial fix has been forced through colonialism. Opening new markets through force or coercion in order to create a new labor force, a new demand, or both. Although the expansion into space is different in that rocks are not people, the drive to expand is the same. It is a temporary fix as these new markets often accumulate their own supply of surplus capital. No matter, capitalism is bound to discover, develop, and exploit these new spaces because of the inherent property of capitalism to generate surplus capital bereft of profitable ends inside its own market.
This new outer-space market is a perfect spatial fix for the decades-long devaluation of the U.S. currency. With the expansion into space and creation of an extraterrestrial economy, devaluation of the dollar can temporarily be stalled as the U.S. 's over accumulated capital can be funneled into paying for space operations with the promise of some distant return. As Victor L. Shammas and Tomas B. Holen note in their paper, One Giant Leap for Capitalistkind: Private Enterprise in Outer Space, “ In this regard, SpaceX and related ventures are not so very different from maritime colonialists and the trader-exploiters of the British East India Company. But there is something new at stake. As the Silicon Valley entrepreneur Peter Diamandis has gleefully noted: ‘There are twenty-trillion-dollar checks up there, waiting to be cashed!'”
As the potential for profitable returns in the space industry grows closer, it’s time for a re-evaluation of our definition of “all-mankind”. The Outer Space Treaty was clear that “mankind” did not mean the most powerful corporations in the wealthiest country. If we aren’t careful, space innovation could become exploitation, not only of space resources in the name of the few, but also of those who have suffered long enough under the continual cycles of crisis and spatial fix.
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