Elon Musk: "I started reading quite a bit about rockets to try and understand why they're so freaking expensive
If one could make them reusable like airplanes, then the cost of rocketry would drop dramatically
The cost of the fuel was maybe anywhere from 0.2% to 0.5% of the cost of the rocket
I came to the conclusion that there wasn't really a good reason for rockets to be so expensive and that they could be a lot less even in an expendable format
Nobody had really been able to make a reusable rocket work... but if we can do that, then that would really be the key breakthrough"
A low birth rate due to extended periods of prosperity and low perceived external danger is the primary reason that Rome and most other powerful civilizations collapsed. Rome had a very high birth rate when under extreme pressure from Carthage and a low birth rate a few generatio
Rome fell because the Romans stopped making Romans.
Elon Musk pointed to the same pattern that appears whenever a civilization gets comfortable: birth rates drop.
Julius Caesar noticed it around 50 BC and explored incentives for a third child. Augustus went further with the Lex Julia and Lex Papia Poppaea, creating the ius trium liberorum, privileges, tax relief, and inheritance advantages for those with three or more children, plus penalties for the childless. The laws failed to reverse the trend.
Will and Ariel Durantβs reading of history shows the cycle repeating: higher births under stress, decline once external threats ease and prosperity rises. Few exceptions.
A society that stays below replacement long enough disappears. Basic arithmetic.
Easter Monday association football. And with a special commentary summarising guest, Mr Dave Anderson !! What could be better ?! Join @Dons_Sayer_WDON & myself live from 3pm (UK) on @RadioWDON via DonsTV. @AFCWimbledon v @LutonTown.
COYFD ππ»πππ§π€