You mean because I worked my tail off in school, applied, and worked my tail off in NASA and the DOD, I am a beneficiary like some welfare recipient?
Yes and no. Yes, you are the beneficiary of the forced transfer of wealth if you are paid by or your work and equipment is funded by any government agency. Someone did not decide that
"Jeez, I wonder what a radio emissions map of the crab nebula looks like. (or whatever it is you do) I want to know so badly that I'm willing to donate however many millions of dollars that I worked hard for to buy the equipment, train the researchers and pay for their livlihood to find out."What happened is that the government plundered a large number of taxpayers at gunpoint, and the some group of bureaucrats were sitting around wondering what to do with all of the ill gotten wealth decided to let some of their cronies decide to dole it out via grants.
No in that you actually work. It's just that the work is not something that the free market demands very much of. If it weren't for the government putting a gun to the heads of taxpayers and then distributing the largess there wouldn't be much radio astronomy. How hard you worked, how smart you are (and I don't think you would be able to do what you do without being fairly smart) is irrelevant. You are not doing work driven by the free market. You are doing government work. (And if you're not, then you are the rare exception. You are well aware that most astronomy is paid for by governments)