As a society of human beings, we set aside parks to preserve resources, not to turn them into saleable goods. To see, or even just to contemplate the beauty and the biological treasures of nature may lift our spirit. And this is certainly an age when spirits need lifting. We set aside parks, because we believe that going there, people grow through their contact with nature, dispel stress, refresh themselves, regain lost energies, become more creative, less likely to commit crimes, happier. We do this for ourselves as a human society, even though no expert will prove the direct causal connections to these hoped-for results.
Parks are to protect the human spirit.
We cannot ask whether our parks are cost-effective, as Mr. Helfey does in advocating his bill. We might ask him in turn, to justify the cost effectiveness of 22 stealth planes, designed to end life on earth by hydrogen-bombing Russia. Each and every one of those little consumer items will cost substantially more than the entire budget of the National Park Service. The most cost-effective thing for our parks would of course be to sell them all to private companies. If we forget that a park is not a factory, then we have no parks, and the only thing left to discuss is the terms on which we divest them.