Hump De Bump: Death Star Political Economy after the Jump

Exactly two weeks ago was May 4th, which is otherwise known as International Star Wars Day. As part of worldwide celebrations by geeky fanboys and girls everywhere dressed as Wookies, Boba Fett, or Princess Leia in a golden bikini (see: Adrianne Curry; then, if interested, bid on said golden bikini. America's First Next Top Model and Dork Goddess not included.)

But what really gets Star Wars into the prime-time for our Hump de Bump Wednesday special is this article from The Monkey Cage.org (The Week's 2010 Blog of the Year) on the Political Economy of Building and Using a Death Star. Really it was just an assessment of whether or not the construction of such a space-surfing, world/country-destroying apparatus would make any political sense in the intergalactic empire, or even in the geopolitical life and times we find ourselves in today.

The article was later featured in the Washington Post blog, proving that the Geek really shall inherit the earth. What set me off over it though, was the claim by some upstart Lehigh University students that: 

"just the steel for a Death Star would cost $852 quadrillion, or 13,000 times the current GDP of the Earth." 

Peko Set, a friend from a "think-tank kind of summer" I enjoyed a couple years back, listed the above estimate as his GChat status this past weekend, to which I protested :

11:58 AM 

me: they dont call it the intergalactic empire for nothing

  nearly all of known space was under their dominion at the end of the clone wars

11:59 AM including asteroid belts and other celestial bodies that could be entirely made of certain heavy elements

12:00 PM Peko: http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2012/05/04/death-star-no-thank-you/

12:04 PM me: haha

  very convincing arguments

 Peko:it's super long. got re-published in the wapo blog

 me: 

12:05 PM i dont think the lehigh people understand the economics of star wars though

  there's no way the empire needed to pay for steel or other building materials at cost

...A spirited discussion of Star Wars Economics, that had surprising parallels in the politics of dictatorship and crony capitalism in the real world, soon follows...

The Shuttle's Last Flight: Why Space Still Matters

I was fortunate enough to get away from work for a few minutes yesterday to witness the much-hyped DC flyover of NASA's Discovery Space Shuttle, officially the last time a space shuttle of any sort will even leave the ground. The shuttle, which will now go to the Smithsonian Museum, left Cape Canaveral in the morning for Washington Dulles International Airport; in between, it stopped traffic, drew 9-5ers like myself from our desks, and wowed everyone else throughout the nation's capital by circling the city four times at low altitude.

I didn't take the picture to your left; I saw the shuttle only briefly out an office window and couldn't quite snap a photo, so the picture that you do see was actually taken by a friend of mine who works elsewhere in the city. What I can speak to, however, is the experience of being around a lot of people excited about seeing a space shuttle, and the good things that I think that says about our country in general.

Even looking out my window, every rooftop in sight was full of eager spectators, who weren't disappointed. After seeing the shuttle, I myself went outside to see if I could get a better view. Although the flyover was finished by then, there were still people milling about on sidewalks and, somewhat perilously, crosswalks; heads craned up toward the sky in anticipation as they asked total strangers if they had seen the shuttle, or if it had already passed over for good (as if anyone really knew). I was one of those strangers, asking a cowboy-hatted security guard next to the White House when it was going to come back. His answer made up for what it lacked in useful information with an equal dose of insight.

"That was just so COOL," the man cooed, "it flew right over the Washington monument. I can't believe it came that close to the ground."

Indeed. But the more amazing thing about the flyover was that I probably could have had the same conversation with anyone out in the street or on a roofdeck between the hours of 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. yesterday morning. What else could bring so many people out into the street at once on some idle Tuesday? What else could be so universally (excuse the pun) appealing that it made everyone forget about everything else they had to get done yesterday, in order to wait and see a space shuttle strapped to a 747?