From: xrcjd@mudpuppy.gsfc.nasa.gov (Charles J. Divine)
Subject: Re: Public support for the space program
Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 20:24:40 GMT

In article <1992Dec31.184656.14629@cs.rochester.edu> dietz@cs.rochester.edu (Paul Dietz) writes:
>This poll asked 1,234 Americans what categories of public spending
>they would like to see increased.  The results:
>
>	Education			76%
>	Drugs				75
>	Homeless			71
>	Health Care			67
>	Pollution			59
>	AIDS				59
>	Job Training & Placement	56
>	Help low-income families	56
>	Aid farmers			48
>	Health insurance		48
>	Aid college students		44
>	Child care services		41
>	First-time home buyers		37
>	Space exploration		21
>	Defense spending		17
>
>When a subgroup was asked if they were willing to pay additional taxes
>to increase federal spending for an item, suport for space exploration
>was also next to last, at 13% (the top 4 categories in the list
>remained above 50%).
>
>Another poll conducted July 1990 (The Gallup Poll Monthly, Sept. 1990,
>pages 44-45) showed a decline in support for the space program.
>In response to the question
>
>   "On the whole, do you feel our investment
>   in space research is worthwhile or do you think it would be better
>   spent on domestic programs such as health care and education?",
>
>the response was:
>
>	Year		Worthwhile	Domestic	No opinion
>	1989		   43%		  52		  5
>	1990		   39		  57		  4
>
>In response to the question
>
>  "I am going to ask you a question about government spending.
>   In answering, please bear in mind that sooner or later all
>   government spending has to be taken out of the taxes that you
>   and other Americans pay.  Thinking about the US space program,
>   tell me whether the amount of money now being spent for that purpose
>   should be increased, kept at the present level, reduced, or ended
>   altogether?"
>
>	Year		Increase       Same   Reduce   End    No Opinion
>	1984		   21%		48	23	5	3
>	1986		   26		50	14	5	5
>	1989		   27		42	22	4	5
>	1990		   17		37	32     10	4
>
>I imagine the jump in 1986 was a result of the Challenger disaster.
>
>The polling data does show that the public favors manned (48%) over
>unmanned (34%) programs.
>
>	Paul F. Dietz
>	dietz@cs.rochester.edu

One problem with these polls is the fact that they reflect the public
lack of knowledge about the areas being ranked, the amounts of money
being spent and the effectiveness of the efforts expended.

Back in the early 80s (1983 I think) I attended a Princeton Conference
on Space Manufacturing.  A sociologist reported an interesting discovery
on these polls.  He first verified the conclusions you present:  little
real support for space spending.  Even more wanted to reduce the 
spending than you report.

He then went on to ask why the critics wanted to cut space spending.

One reason frequently offerred was that the critics objected to
spending well in excess of $100 billion a year on military projects.

The sociologist then constructed a second experiment.  He informed a
subject population of critics of how much money was spent on NASA and
what it was spent on (civilian projects, rather than military).

The results?  The overwhelming number of critics then said "Is that
all we're spending?  We should be spending MORE.

For more details, check the early 80s proceedings of the conference.
They're available from the AIAA, possibly in good libraries as well.

In general, while I trust and support democratic means of decision
making, I don't always think the public always knows the truth.

Some of us who have investigated various programs you cite with more
support suspect that support would vanish if the public were even a
little bit better informed.

-- 
Chuck Divine