‘Private’ Space Development

While New Mexico’s state government gears up to build a spaceport, Space.com reports on a similar endeavor underway next door in Texas.
Both projects were initiated by brazen billionaires, Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson seeking to launch his Virgin Galactic in Southern NM, and Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin setting up in West Texas. Both are supposedly private endeavors, with private companies and investors seeking to make a profit through space development.
The difference? Blue Origin is building its launch site with private funds, on private land, while billionaire Sir Richard Branson is taking advantage of the relatively poor New Mexico taxpayer, conning Bill Richardson and the New Mexico Legislature out of $100 million in public funds, plus a sizeable chunk of public land.
We’re told that a billionaire needs our hard-eared tax dollars for “economic development,” while at the same time we’re asked to forget about the negative impact on economic growth of high taxes and reckless spending by the state government. Given the Texas economy outperforms NM in almost every measure, it’s clear which approach works better.
Low taxes and limited government lead to real economic development, not welfare for billionaires.