Sustainability is destroying the Earth

[immoderate]

52. What is the benefit to consumers of paying for transmission from space?

We haven't even gotten to the benefits of distributed generation.

What I find bizarre, are the presumptions you make.

And if you can stand some education:

Platinum-group elements (PGEs) include platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium, and ruthenium. PGEs are highly valued for their uses in industrial machinery, catalytic converters, and fuel cells ("What are strategic," 2011). Strategic fission elements are primarily uranium and thorium, as well as plutonium, which occurs as a byproduct of fission reactions ("Fact sheet on," 2011). Fission elements are most commonly used in the fuel and energy industries. Rare earth elements (REEs) consist of the lanthanide series of the periodic table, as well as scandium and yttrium. Although vital for the manufacture of electronics, chemical catalysts, lasers, and many other high-demand products, these minerals are often difficult to locate, mine, and purify ("Rare earth elements," 2011). The final strategic element, phosphorus, is very unique in that it is biologically essential. It is ubiquitous in fertilizers and necessary for all life.
http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2016/finalwebsite/

The metals mentioned here are used in technology. They are rare and essential. (BTW, "weight in gold" was a joke, that you apparently missed.) Our need for most of these minerals could be satisfied for centuries by one minor M type asteroid.

Corporatist means collecting ROI. That's it.

--imm