Who really benefits from charity and NASA looking for the private partners for the Moon mining

With the biggest number of philanthropists in history, it’s not the poor but the rich who benefit the most from billions of dollars offered to different causes each year. Donors often give money to universities and schools their children attend, to sports teams, healthcare and political organizations closest to their views. In the US, only a fifth of the money spent went to the poor. Even if donations find the way to the neediest, it’s sometimes counterproductive as money may redirect attention from issues considered more important by the local communities. It’s also taxpayers who “fund” the causes chosen by the rich. Charity allows avoiding tax that otherwise would end up in the budget. That’s 3.64 bln pounds in tax breaks in England alone in 2012.

There’s an 80% bigger chance that a migrant, not a native will be an entrepreneur in the US, according to the recent study. Researchers from MIT, Northwestern Kellog, and US Census found that companies started by migrants provide 42% more jobs than ones funded by Americans – a characteristic true for businesses of all sizes.

The learning losses due to the COVID pandemic may cost students up to 3% of their career earnings – as suggested by various researches, including one from OECD. For many of them, remote learning is not as effective as the traditional one, and students may carry today’s shortcomings in their work. It could also result in the lower GDP for the countries affected – an estimated number of 1.5% for the rest of the century. Or even more, if the education does not go back to the pre-COVID quality soon.

NASA announced that it will pay private companies to provide the Moon soil for research as a part of the Artemis exploration program that aims at landing Americans on the Earth’s natural satellite again by 2024. The samples will be used to develop possibilities for astronauts to use local resources in their missions. It’s the first time in history when private entities will be legally incentivized to collect and sell celestial materials. NASA’s administrator called to “establish the regulatory certainty to extract and trade space resources”.