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AsteroidTax

 Global Asteroid Tax
  (+3, -6)
(+3, -6) 		  [vote for,
against]

As with some of the ideas on this site, I thought of this one after watching a show about how to stop asteroids from colliding with earth.

It sounds like billions of dollars, if not trillions are needed to fund a system that tries to scan for possible earth-bound asteroids, and secondly for a system to knock them off a collision course. Perhaps governments all over the planet should excise a very small tax to help fund what could benefit all of human kind (and plant/animal kind minus the cockroach).

—nebben, Dec 08 2004

HR 4544 http://thomas.loc.g...query/z?c108:h4544:
As opposed to private funding? Who did you think was going to pay for it? [Shz, Dec 08 2004]

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       No, mount a real space program, mine the asteroids and tax the miners. Of course they will rebel and secede, but it's got to start somewhere.
—normzone, Dec 08 2004
   

       Ooo... nice idea... but I don't think people would like MORE taxes... Very nice idea, but you know how people will complain about how "it's so unlikely it will never happen" and all that.   

       I thought this idea was an idea to make a tax to save the earth. Like say an asteroid was headed towards earth, the government would tax us and if we didn't pay... ka-splat!
—EvilPickels, Dec 08 2004
   

       WEll, if we find one coming towards us, then at least all the raw material is heading in the right direction. That'll make it cheaper to mine. So it's not so much a tax, more like owning shares: we look for the thing, then when we find it we launch lots of little robot wizards (all based on the microsoft paperclip, because of its amazing flexibility and versatile nature, and because the sooner we get it off the planet the better), which dig like mad, refine the asteroid as best they can, then tweak its trajectory so it heads into a stable orbit! Hey presto, all the iron and rare metals you could ever want. If this all sounds expensive, then remember - it's not being funded out of your tax money - you own shares! And if it works you'll all be rich.
—moomintroll, Dec 08 2004
   

       hmmm, wouldn't it be nice?
—theircompetitor, Dec 08 2004
   

       ...and if it doesn't work, you'll all be dead and well beyond caring about taxes!
—gardnertoo, Dec 08 2004
   

       Sounds like a good candidate for a P3 project; a private public partnership. Companies get revenue for start-ups and the public can be responsible for cost over-rides and 'accidents'.
—mensmaximus, Dec 09 2004
   

       Please, you can't even get people to pay for a contingency they KNOW is going to happen. (e.g. health insurance)
—phundug, Dec 09 2004
   

       There already is a publicly-funded program to track asteroids. As to the second part, the system to knock them out, if people built an asteroid-smasher on the off-chance, they'd soon get bored with having it and not using it, and find alternative uses for it, like smashing up the moon or destroying Belgium.
—pottedstu, Dec 09 2004
   

       Bah! There are no such things as asteroids! (-- The state of Science in the USA 2007)
—sophocles, Dec 09 2004
   

       Those countries that don't pay will simply be excluded from protection.
—Voice, Dec 06 2010
   

       You know, I bet you could hit an asteroid on a budget of less than £1000.....
—MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 06 2010
   

       [MaxwellBuchanan] Think carefully before choosing a name ....
—mouseposture, Dec 07 2010
   

       I was thinking, we could put a big "X" on the asteroid to act as a target, and then offer a prize for the person getting closest to the target. If only I could come up with a name...
—MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 09 2010
   

       I was thinking of "The Competition to Win Some Money if You Hit the Cross". Yours is catchier though.
—MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 09 2010
   

       How about "The Chi Prize?"
—mouseposture, Dec 10 2010
   

       the X-press!
—Voice, Dec 10 2010
   


 

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