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Elon Musk will run into trouble setting up a Martian government, lawyers say:
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is steadfast in realizing his dreams of establishing a permanent colony on Mars, but any new government there will face immense legal challenges.
We got an early glimpse of what such a future society could look like, buried deep inside the user agreement for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service.
“For services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities,” the terms of service read. “Accordingly, disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement.”
[...] Lawyers, however, have their doubts about SpaceX’s abilities to set up a Martian state. In fact, several told The Independent in a new story, what SpaceX has laid out in its Starlink user agreement isn’t radically different from space treaties that have been signed over the years.
[...] For instance, the 2020 Artemis accords stipulate that “outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.”
[...] “[Musk] could be trying to lay some groundwork for offering up an independent constitution… just like he did for electric cars and reusable launch vehicles,” [Randy Segal, of the law firm Hogan Lovells] told The Independent. “Does it have any precedent or enforceability? The answer I’d say is clearly no; but if you say something enough, people might come around.”
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday December 31 2020, @12:24AM (4 children)
Roughly 60% of Americans live in three rather small regions, where the price of living is highly inflated. When unions clamor for raises, they don't speak for flyover country, they only worry about those three biggest cities, and the areas around them. So, yeah, they make more than twice the money, but they can't buy twice the groceries. Sane people shake their heads and cry when city people talk about 30 million dollar mansions.
We're gonna be able to vacation in Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and maybe Minnesota soon. Incredible times.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 31 2020, @02:42AM
Yah like 30 mil is average. You're not even talking rich. Everyone has one and a spare in case the Red hoardes encrouch the city limits *spit*
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Thursday December 31 2020, @10:29AM (2 children)
Except salaries aren't part of the GDP number, so I'm not talking about making money. I am talking about how many dollars of GDP is produced by the person - how productive that person is. Assuming half the country is democrat and half is republican - which is close enough, a democrat is 2.33 times more productive than a republican. So what you say doesn't actually have a point.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 31 2020, @01:26PM (1 child)
That is a distinction without a difference. GDP is recorded when those very same people spend their salaries, and they spend them in the same states they earn them. Inflated prices = inflated GDP. Purchasing power parity is what matters (which is why red states are actually more productive than blue ones, and also why China's economy actually passed the US's a while back). Insurance salesmen and bankers passing money back and forth in New York racks up the GDP numbers, and it doesn't accomplish a damned thing. Farmers and factory workers in Michigan, Nebraska, and Alabama do.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Thursday December 31 2020, @03:12PM
so, lemme get this straight, your method to show republicans produce more dgp and just divide the democrat number till it gets lower than the republican one? brilliant!
here in the real world, a republican person still produces over twice less than a democrat, and china's economy is a joke compared to ours. you know, because 70% is higher than 30% and 13 trillion is lower than 20 trillion.