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Originally Posted by ratbastid
I'll say it again--NASA is a red herring. And I'm a BIG space nerd. In sixth grade I could just about tell you the name of every major system on the Shuttle, okay? I'm into this stuff and I WANT US aerospace to lead the world. But unless we fix our education system and our economy, before long we'll be unable to afford solid rocket fuel to launch our fancy shiny new orbiters. NASA just CAN'T be a priority right now, not with the other things we're facing as a nation.
josh, your point is well taken about our space program as a point of pride and inspiration. God knows it was for me, as a kid. But it's just Maslow's Heirarchy (that's right, I went there). Basic needs need to be dealt with before things like self-actualization and pride. And our basic needs--economy, infrastructure, education--have been left to fall completely apart by our current war-obsessed administration, and something needs to be done about them before we're a third world country.
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I do understand that all too well. It is hard to sell someone on a space exploration project when they aren't able to get their kid into the doctor, they are commuting on a crumbling infrastructure, can hardly afford to fill their tank, and are not sure when their job will be shipped overseas.
Ending our excessive spending on war is the key, not stripping things like NASA. We are reaching towards $700 billion in war spending while NASA is at $16 billion.
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Originally Posted by Sun Tzu 2:2-6 (~500BC)
2. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.
3. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.
4. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.
5. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with prolonged warfare.
6. There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.
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Now I'm sure the Administration is thinking this is 'soooo pre-9/11', but it still holds true.