TO BOLDLY GO WHERE GENE RODDENBERRY HAS GONE BEFORE: Bernie Sanders wants to bring socialism to space.

The growth of an asteroid mining sector does have certain drawbacks. The sudden influx of what are now precious metals such as gold and platinum would diminish their unit value, causing economic disruption. Certain countries in Africa, dependent on the export of raw materials, would have to diversify their economies, much in the same way as the Persian Gulf states are moving from oil and gas to high tech.

But far from being a bad thing, as Sanders suggests, asteroid mining would usher in an age of abundance on Earth. Many of the raw materials mined in space would be used to create products in space-based manufacturing facilities. Since these manufacturing processes would take advantage of microgravity and other environmental factors unique to space, products that are impossible to create on Earth would become available to consumers. Space mining could lead to space manufacturing.

People such as Musk would become even more fabulously wealthy. Jobs would be created, and the world’s economy would rise faster than what otherwise would be the case. The argument for socialism, which Sanders favors, would be further diminished.

The senator will just have to grin and bear it.

Don’t worry — Roddenberry assures me this sort of profiteering will become passe by the time of the United Federation of Planets. (In-between making “his estimated $500 million fortune off of his creation and its many spin-offs.”)