From: mykes@shell.portal.com (mike myke schwartz)
Subject: Re: Democrat == Loony Left??? (was Re: Christiani
Followup-To: talk.politics.misc,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh,alt.rush-limbaugh,alt.politics.bush
Organization: Portal Communications Company
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Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 14:34:08 GMT

Jay Denebeim P025 (denebeim@brtph254.bnr.ca) wrote:
: In article <1992Dec17.172656.27110@technology.com> judy@technology.com (Judy McMillin) writes:
: > 	Can any of you think of any moral or philosophical justification
: >	for using huge amounts of taxpayer money to fund the "space
: >	program" at all?  Not counting, of course, it provides high-
: >	pay, high-tech jobs for a bunch of us.
: 
: Yes I can.  How about these for instance:
:

NOT quite as rosey as you make it out to be...
 
: 1) The space program has always paid for itself by the worth of the
:    technologies developed for it.  A very few are:
:    a) Microelectronics without which we wouldn't even be talking.

AT&T, the PHONE company (as opposed to a space technology company)
invented the transistor.  Microelectronics would have happened without
the space program.  DEFENSE technology had much more to do with all
of the stuff you talk about here and even the space program itself.

:    b) Telemetry systems that were the basic building blocks of what is
:       now saving thousands of lives in the health care industry.
:    c) High tech plastics such as Kevlar (used in bullet proof vests)
:    d) All sorts of materials science enabling planes, cars, etc to be
:       lighter and more energy efficient.
: 
:    Each of these has helped our standard of living and quality/length
:    of life arguably more than the cost of the program.
: 
: 2) The end goal is potentially very good.  A fully developed space
:    program would enable several things:
:    a) Vastically reduced pollution.
:       This would be achieved by moving polluting industries into
:       orbit, and producing our energy needs on orbit.

This is almost laughable...  the expense is outrageous...

:    b) Very cheap power.

Very cheap power is just as likely to happen without space technology.
Solar, for example, or nuclear, etc.

:    c) Room for expansion of the human race.

You could take the entire human race and put it in the state of texas, have
1/3 the state left over to grow enough food to feed the people, and still
have 1/3 of the state left over for natural habitat.  The cost of moving
people into outerspace is absurd, even for a handful.

:    d) Cheap materials. (gold etc)
:

Barry Bonds gets paid 5x his weight in gold.  Would be cheaper to just
send him around :)  Seriously... how do you come up with this?
 
: 3) Unless we expand our horizons into space our technological culture
:    will almost certainly not last another hundered years.  Before you
:    say 'good' remember what effect this would have on people, imagine
:    the entire world in the same position as Somalia etc.  Not a pretty
:    site.  I doubt there will be much relief comming from non-existant
:    'little green men'.
:

It would be a lot wiser to focus on planet earth.  Get rid of the welfare
state would be first thing to do.  Invest in appropriate infrastructure,
such as high speed data networks and possibly trains would be second.  Such
infrastructure investments would allow more spread out communities to
flourish instead of the increasing burdens put upon the cities that we
see beginning to fail already.  Third, get rid of farm subsidies, because
we already have the technology for far less than 5% of the population to
work to feed the other 95% - just getting the food where it is needed is
stifled because of governmental interference.
 
: Have a nice day

I do not mean to imply that an intelligently planned and used space program
does not make sense.  The cost of providing living conditions for humans
in such a hostile environment is just way too costly.  Unmanned spacecraft
map entire planets for us... satellites help us gather information about the
earth (when we look at the earth from space)... space provides us with
communications possibilities known to us only in the last 3 decades.  Star
Trek is a total fantasy, but a nice TV show to watch :)

: -- 
: Jay Denebeim     Address: UUCP:     duke!wolves!deepthot!jay
:                           Internet: jay@deepthot.cary.nc.us
:                  BBS:(919)-460-7430      VOICE:(919)-460-6934
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc