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**JULY 13, 2021**

Meyerson on TAP

Plutocrats in Space

Did you ever think of our historic astronaut corps as the epitome of
egalitarianism?

To be sure, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Buzz Aldrin, and the guys-they
were all guys-who first went into space and then to the moon were also
all white. On the other hand, though, they weren't selected on the
basis of income or wealth, and as career Air Force pilots, they didn't
really have a lot of either. Moreover, particularly due to President
Kennedy's vow that America would place a man on the moon by the end of
the '60s, they symbolized something national: America's productive
and technological supremacy, and the skills of its workforce. Like all
the armed services, the Air Force and the space program were a mix of
white-collar, blue-collar, and no-discernible-collar work and workers.
Being an astronaut required skills that, collar-wise, were both blue and
white. The talents that took the flag to the moon were cross-class.

Gone are the days. Today, our privatized space ventures symbolize the
nation only in that they reflect our descent into plutocracy. It's
Bezos versus Musk versus Branson. Rooting interest in this contest is,
well, limited, and I'd guess among most Americans, nonexistent, if not
actually hostile to them all. Where going into space once symbolized
national and cross-class prowess, a manifestation of an unprecedented
industrial powerhouse that drew on and rewarded the work of scientists,
engineers, and unionized aerospace workers, today going into space is
based, like the larger economy, on individual wealth. It's a game for
billionaires. And the descent from Neil Armstrong and Gus Grissom to
Bezos and Musk is a pretty fair synecdoche for the descent of the United
States-white and male still flying high, but moving from a nation that
prized and rewarded a wide range of skills and work to one that prizes
and rewards only wealth.

The rich now own outer space. And you say you don't want a revolution?


~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter

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