Broadcast April 26, 2001
Attention all thrill-seekers. You can now be a launched into outer space -- if you re willing to pay the freight. Just call up the Russians.
That s what Dennis Tito did. And this Sunday -- after paying the Russians a mere $20 million -- Dennis will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhastan on a ten-day round trip to the International Space Station hovering above the world.
Even though Dennis is an American, and we Americans are jointly building that Space Station, Dennis made his deal with the Russians. That s because our own National Aeronautics and Space Administration turned Dennis down flat. NASA doesn t think outer space is safe enough yet for amateur tourists. NASA finally consented to the Russians taking Dennis up there in order to avoid an international incident.
So here s Russia -- a dozen years after Soviet communism -- engaging in the most capitalist of practices -- selling exactly what somebody wants, at the price the market is willing to bear. And here WE are, the center of galactic commerce, unwilling to deal at any price.
And it s not only trips into outer space the Russians are willing to sell. There are reports that some Russians are peddling dangerous plutonium across eastern Europe. Russian scientists who once worked in Soviet labs linked to germ warfare are selling their services in the Middle East for hefty fees. International intelligence informs us that Russian mobsters are engaged in selling slaves around the world. Inside Russia, you can pay a policeman or an inspector to look the other way. And at election time, you can buy and sell a lot of votes.
In fact, almost everything s for sale in Russia these days. But that doesn t mean Russia has become a center of free-market capitalism. Quite the opposite. The truth of the matter is that when everything s for sale, nothing of value is really safe.
Capitalism depends on shared norms about what can be bought and sold, and under what circumstances. Russia isn t really a capitalist economy. It s chaos. That s why the average Russian today is far poorer than he was a dozen years ago.
Dennis Tito may be in for the ride of his life this Saturday, and good luck to him. But Russia is on a wild ride. It s a very dangerous one, and America needs to be paying more attention.
