In politics, they say you want your people all peeing out of the tent rather than into it.

In this context, there is a case to be made for assigning Elon Musk a new task to keep his mind off the budget and keep him focused and on point.

Here is the assignment. Give him a contract to develop the desalination technology that will increase the habitable size of the USA by one-third and double the habitable size of the Earth. This can be achieved by collapsing the cost of desalinating seawater to roughly $ 200 per acre-foot. (That would make it economic to farm any desert on earth and place data and server farms– as well as mango and avocado orchards–in the US deserts.) And if Musk wants to, he can make the technology dual-use. That is, the technology will work on both Earth and Mars.

Do you think this project would achieve the political ends mentioned above while advancing Trump’s policy aims?

Anonymous