Michael R. Strain, Columnist

Space Travel Is a Business Now. That’s Good.

Most people don’t think about economics when they dream about flights to the stars. They ought to start.

July 25, 2019 at 1:00 PM UTC

Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”

A public good.
Photographer: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

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Much of the commentary celebrating last weekend’s anniversary of the spaceflight that brought men to the moon rightly focused on the sheer scale of the accomplishment. But now that the Champagne bottles are empty, it’s worth considering the economic lessons that outer space holds.

One is the central role governments play in the provision of public goods. These types of goods are unusual in two respects: no one can be excluded from consuming them, and one person’s use of the good doesn’t diminish another’s. Left on its own, the private market would not produce the amount of a public good that is best for society.