Legislation banning advertisements in outer space.

There were companies that wanted to build floating billboards in outer space that would have an appearance the size of the moon in the sky and the world’s biggest brands would pay to have their advertisements on them. Legislation had to be crafted to prevent such monstrosities.

I’m proud to be part of a society that passed such legislation.

When thinking about the individual logistics of such a project, it really seems like something pretty cool, even though it would create a problem.

• Space
• Huge Structure
• Engineering and Design

However, the problem is obvious, where does it stop? One company does it and gets a good return on their investment. Then another wants in, until we can no longer see the sky. Until plants are dying because the sun is blocked out. This could have disastrous effects if it kept going on unchecked which is why I’m sure in this particular case, the politics didn’t follow the money. Or they did, except the money lost in other areas could have been significantly higher than the money generated from this endeavor.

This is a good case study for understanding systems. The world is full of them, and some conflict with others. In most people’s minds, systems that self-regulate are ideal. Your bathtub for example most likely has an overflow drain near the top, if the water reaches it, it starts to drain automatically, not requiring your input. This could prevent your bathroom from being flooded from a few minutes of absent-mindedness or distraction.

In capitalism, competition is the self-regulation that people believe in. If we have three restaurants and three clothing stores in town, they will all charge appropriate prices since there is competition. They will all work on providing the best products they can so that people want to go there.

We’re losing competition as smaller businesses sell or close, making way to larger ones. The ability to self-regulate is being lost. As a result, we’re ending up more and more with lackluster products. We need the competition back, to regulate the economy and push interesting products.

After all, whatever happened to interesting?