[RightWhale]

Good post. There is a lot of the same old argument in Dubya's space initiative.

[zarf]

And I understand that much of the funding goes into the pockets of the president's close buddies.

Would that be Clinton and Terry "Global Croissing" McAuliffe?

[SpaceBar]

Well, I do have news for you. The United States is roughly seven trillion clams in the hole at this time with no end in sight. You can't just keep printing it and pretend that accumulated debt is meaningless. All sane projects are subject to a cost-benefit analysis of some sort. Even public works projects without a future revenue stream are weighted on relative capitalized costs. An open ended mandate to "figure out what's out there" doesn't sound very fiscally responsible or well thought out any way you slice it. Comparison with the Louisiana Purchase is simplistic thinking at its zenith. The LP was known in extent, and it's value tangible and quantifiable. What ever happened to the word "boondoggle"? It doesn't ever seem to be used anymore.

[Gunslingr3]

Good post. There is a lot of the same old argument in Dubya's space initiative.

If government knew what to do with resources the Soviet Union wouldn't have failed.

[CyberAnt]

Hmmm? I see no one is calculating ALL THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF JOBS which will be created by this "space" mission.

And the hundreds of thousands of new products which will be developed because of this "space" mission. There were lots of threads on FR recently listing all the new developments since we have been in the space program.

Liberals are so short-sighted.