Re: Space funding (was Re: Hillary needs to quit)

Mac Breck wrote:
> Dano wrote:
>> Mac Breck wrote:
>>>
>>> I am almost certain that the human race does not have the long term
>>> *will* to plan that far ahead, to the point where it will be
>>> distributed over many planets, and one mass extinction event at one
>>> planet won't wipe out 100% of humanity.  There are too many people
>>> here who don't think about what's beyond their skin or five minutes
>>> away from them, too many whose long term view borders on
>>> *immediate*, and too many who think *only* of themselves and
>>> certainly not of the human race as a whole, or something beyond
>>> their own lifetime.  Hey, if you like having all your eggs in one
>>> basket, fine.  Maybe humanity shouldn't survive.  I suppose I don't
>>> really care one way or the other, but even I can see that 14 cents
>>> a day per person in the USA, for NASA, is a pittance.
>>
>> Until we can get our species advanced enough to quit our murderous
>> tendencies...
>
> Yeah, like that's ever going to happen.  Quit?  That's highly unlikely
> to ever happen.  Get a better rein on it, maybe.
>
>
>> or find the compassion to care for our own and the other
>> lifeforms...right here on this planet...I see no purpose in infecting
>> the rest of the universe.  We don't even know that much about our own
>> damn planet.
>>
>> We can't even live in peace with other humans.  I can't imagine it
>> going all that well, were we to encounter more advanced life.
>>
>> Here's an idea.  If this is so im****tant to you, and holds so much
>> value,
>
> From my above words "Maybe humanity shouldn't survive.  I suppose I
> don't really care one way or the other,...", what makes you think it's
> im****tant to me?  I'm just saying that going after NASA's 14 cents a
> day per person in the USA, is more than a bit ridiculous.
>

It all adds up.  You have to start somewhere.  And I'm certainly *not* 
suggesting we *only* cut the funding of NASA.  I'm not even
proposing...nor 
is Obama that we disband the entire program...just delay this specific,
very 
expensive one.  We ARE fighting a war you know.  In case you missed every 
daily paper for several freaking years!  End *that* first and let's talk.

>
>> mount a private effort
>
> Ah, there's the usual.
>

Unfortunately, it's not done.  Private enterprise could be much more cost 
effective...even profitable.

>
>> to profit from all the potential there
>> is offworld.
>
> So, profit is a better motivator than survival?
>
>

If you're talking imminent survival it might be...but for the survival of 
the species a thousands years off?  That's laughable.  We'll blow
ourselves 
up before that if we don't deal with the present.

>
>> Meanwhile, I'd prefer my own taxes
>
> Your 14 cents a day.
>

Kep saying that like it doesn't matter.  Send me that 14 cents times 365. 
I 
could use it.

Better yet...send it to my town where they can't afford the firefighters
we 
had twen years ago...the last time we had full staffing.  Send it to our 
police department in the same situation.  And yes...send it to our
schools, 
where we are mandated to spend on various federally and state mandated 
programs, yet they get a pittance from both.  So much that we finally
voted 
a tax increase on OURSELVES in order to pay for some (but not all) of
these 
services.  A tax increase that my family will pay that is around $400 this

year alone.

>
>> to go to more
>> im****tant needs that aren't being met on our own world.  If human
>> life is really of such im****t to you, I suggest you worry about the
>> here and now a bit more.
>
> That doesn't preclude spending a little now on NASA in hopes that
> it'll pay off in the future.

It does in this voters opinion.  Again.  Talk to me when we fix a myriad
of 
terrestrial problems.  That should provide incentive for you to work (and 
vote) to try to fix them.