Chapter 4

Wheelan states that instead of creating the Margarita Space Pak, these engineers could be working on something like "searching for cheaper, cleaner source of energy or a better way to deliver nutrients to malnourished children in Africa" (85). This was a small point in the beginning of the chapter but it grabbed my attention the most. I've been to Africa. I've seen malnourished in the flesh. I sang songs and ran through fields with little kids who are in so much need of nutrition it makes you want to cry. Now I understand that we can't help/save everybody, but isn't it a better use of a brilliant mind to use its skill to better the world, than to give the baseball fans more options for beverages? The economy boggles me the more and more I read this book. It seems as if we keep learning more problems that are easily solvable, but no one is willing to sacrifice anything to solve them. "Does the world need the Margarita Space Pak? No. Could the engineering minds that created it have been put to some more socially useful purpose? Yes" (85).