Most of these guys are left-wing nutbags. Asimov’s answer, however, is so flippant that I can’t help but think he was being sarcastic, perhaps taking a jab at those who, at the time, blamed everything on Reagan, from AIDS to starving peasants in Africa.
Wish that were true. I read the timeless Foundation trilogy in the 11th grade (written in the 50s as I recall) and after was delighted to learn Asimov had penned a second trilogy of the books maybe a couple of decades later — until I read the politics-laden leftist tripe which, as I recall, had the surrender of human autonomy to some “Gaia” (sic?) Earth entity, evils of human persuit of resources/leisure being the main thrust. The books were just painful and exhausting to get through: zero reward for reading, exactly zero resemblence to the original books. Asimov, like so many others, didn’t age like fine wine.
I wonder what a hundred random sci fi writers from 1987 would say if they were told that in 2012 the United States of America no longer would have the capacity to send a single man into Earth orbit, much less to the moon or beyond. Not a consequence of nuclear or globally destabilizing war or other catastrophic event, just the inevitable fallout from social engineering and wealth redistribution most of them likely supported.