[QUOTE="Ace6301"][QUOTE="Laihendi"] If the government was not spending over a trillion dollars of tax revenues on welfare programs each year then perhaps there would be more money for scientific research.II_Seraphim_II
I'd rather have some of that military budget go toward NASA. One uses their budget to blow up people on the other side of the planet and the other goes a long way to creating new technologies and given how beneficial some of the technologies NASA has given us in the past are for all of humanity it's quite likely they will continue to do so. Given how incredibly bloated the US military budget is it could stand to lose a couple billion and not take a hit in effectiveness whereas Welfare, while it could do with a bit of reform, is extremely difficult to remove funding from without having widespread repercussions. Seraphim: NASA is probably one of the best investments mankind has ever made as far as technological progress is concerned. The amount of medical and everyday practical items that they've created and perfected in large part to overcome issues with space travel is pretty overwhelming when you actually look at a list. The greatest investment in terms of technological progress the world has ever made is War. War always brings about technological leaps. And perhaps I'm malinformed, but could you give me a few examples of the many practical developments brought about by NASA that are widely in use today? And on the concept of War, NASA's space flights only exist because war exists. The first rockets ever created were made for the sole purpose of ending lives.
Edit: I saw a post with the examples. Yes, those are all some great examples, but note that a lot of those things are not inventions but merely refinements. For instance, I saw "water purification system" on that list. Water purification has existed for billions of years, its called water seeping through dirt and rocks...thats why a lot of the water u see dripping from cavern walls is usually pure as hell. Also "Protective Clothing"....how much more vague can that get? We've had protective clothing for ages, middle ages, the times of Christ, Ancient Egypt...they all had protective clothing. And my favorite is "Advanced Keyboard Design." Let me add "Golf Ball and Golf Club"....game changer.
Edit 2: Im not claiming that NASA is pointless, it has its merits, and has added quite a bit to the medical field. But While their advancements in the detection of breast cancer are great and highly appreciated, it doesnt take into account that the majority of people on this planet don't live long enough to have breast cancer. They die long before due to violence, malnutrition, and various other diseases that are easily avoidable if we improve people's living conditions. NASA is creating a light bulb when we dont even have electricity. Its solving problems that affect the minority, not the majority. But as a national agency that is completely understandable cause the living standards in the US are such that people do generally live long enough to be afflicted with Breast Cancer. So if we are talking on a national scale, then yes, NASA makes sense for the US. US is a nation of excess so they can afford to spend money on NASA, but on a global scale, as the human race, NASA makes no sense.
Investing in war is a dumb idea. Nobody will be around to enjoy the fruits of wars labor, if everyone is dead.
.
Log in to comment