Poverty = lack of access to information - Charles in Space Blog

Q. Can spaceflight be justified with the extent of world poverty?
Mike, Ireland

A. I am not certain if it can be justified to your satisfaction. Nor am I certain that it needs to justified any more than hundreds of other human activities and industries that take up much more space and human resources than space, from higher education to rail transport, need to be justified. These days the concept of poverty includes the lack of access to information resources that are frequently space based. We should not try to eliminate poverty by eliminating those things that people strive for.
Charles Simonyi, blogging from outer space
http://blog.charlesinspace.com/category/ask-charles/?&paged=2

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/04/09/russia.space.ap/index.html

See my earlier post at:
http://wonderlane.blogspot.com/2007/03/charles-in-space.html