>>I will go along with this, like Lewis and Clark, if the tax system and rates are the same as they were during the Jefferson administration.
Well, that’s not going to happen. We do need to massively cut programs, as Newt promised with both the dissolution of all czars, dissolution of Obamacare, and hopefully the complete privatization of SS and reduction and streamlining of all federal programs. I agree that the DOT, DOE, EPA, and a host of of other programs need to be phased out immediately.
The space program, however, if allowed to set up shop permanently on the moon will become a platform for MASSIVE PRIVATE INVESTMENT. Even if the materials on the moon have no practical economic value on earth, the tourism value ALONE will make up for the difference. I am suspicious, however, that the raw, refined titanium (shot by a much smaller rocket from the moon), retrorocketed before reentry into earth’s atmosphere, shielded and parachuted to safety, will make a profit.
The big money, however, will be made when humans realize that they can set up shop on any planet, and then proceed to do so. For humans to remain human, they need to leave the earth, because lately they seem to be turning into animals.
Let private investment build its own platforms and keep its hands out of my pocket.