We should be ashamed
It's shameful that the United States, a pioneer in conquest of space, has relinquished it role because of faux monetary concerns. With all the tax dollars we waste every year on (unnecessary) social programs and corporate welfare, We could have allocated enough over the last twenty years to at least have a space program that could put men on Mars. Instead, the space leaders are China and Russia.
Fucking shameful.
China's third lunar probe will blast off in the second half of 2013, the state Xinhua news agency reported late on Monday. Other reports said it would land and transmit back a survey of the moon's surface.
If successful, the landing would be China's first on the lunar surface and mark a new milestone in its space development. It is part of a project to orbit, land on and return from the moon, Xinhua said.
China said in its last white paper on space it was working towards landing a man on the moon, although it has not given a time frame.
Beijing sees its multi-billion-dollar space programme as a symbol of its rising global stature, growing technical expertise, and the Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.
It kicked off in 1999 with the launch of the unmanned Shenzhou-1. [...]
Is "space" an exception to the small government and free market principles you hold?
Everything should be privatized - especially something as costly as space exploration.
Let the Chinese waste their money on endeavors that may not pay off for years, if ever. Let us be more productive and fruitful with our wealth by allowing the economic calculation of mutually beneficial free exchange to be the engine of our prosperity by catering to the demands of myriad individuals instead of lining the pockets of politicians and their cronies with our tax dollars.
Saying "instead of using this tax money this way, we should use it that way" is an un-winnable argument. You leave in place the very mechanisms to waste our tax dollars in ways you don't like. It then is merely a game of thrones - he who grabs power can wield it as he wishes.
The space between your ears, no. Outer space, yes. Absolutely.
If there is a better ROI for my tax dollars -- other than our military -- I want to see it. Do some research on the multiplier effect of the Apollo Space Program. That's why I have no truck with using my tax dollars on space exploration and discovery. Bailing out GM? Not so much. How's that stock doing, BTW? I guess as a taxpayer I should be thrilled that GM signed a $600,000,000 contract with a British soccer team and refused to advertise on the Super Bowl after this year. Space exploration instead of that? Fuckin' A.
I agree with you wholeheartedly on privatization.
Then you should be ashamed after all.
George, you're missing my point.
Are some things better uses of tax dollars than others? Most certainly. But these are subjective defined. A leftist will prefer universal health care. What makes your subjective valuations superior to another's?
The point is to get that money out of third party hands altogether. You want to fund space exploration? Do it. Don't force the lefty to do the same through taxes. Conversely, if the lefty wants to pay into a health system to keep the poor covered, he should do it himself and not force others.
Not only is this more just - since no one is being coerced out of their money to pay for things they disapprove of - but it also allows the money to be spent more efficiently. Instead of bureaucrats and middle-men greasing their palms as tax-money is funneled to favored parties, each of us who value our money most will be more accountable in how it's spent. You won't keep funding a space program with repeated failures. Instead, you'll fund the competing program with the promising new technology. Government doesn't work that way - a poorer program or idea may be funded simply because they are based in their home district and can keep the local voters employed (helping secure reelection) or it will be handed of to the company that helped fund the campaign, or the one who will give the politician a cushy lobbyist job after leaving office.
Privatize everything. It is horrendous how our tax dollars are spent in countless ways. But it doesn't make sense to lament a way we're now saving money.
"What makes your subjective valuations superior to another's?"
That's easy. I said it.
"Privatize everything. It is horrendous how our tax dollars are spent in countless ways. But it doesn't make sense to lament a way we're now saving money."
Agreed. Except those functions authorized by the Constitution.
I'd be happy to even whittle away at those functions.
But if we at least start using the Constitution again, we'll be much better off.