Quote:
Originally Posted by FlameOn
Killing funding for science and programs such as NASA is one of the biggest mistakes the US can make. The patent royalties alone from NASA spinoff technologies more than doubled the net input funding provided to NASA by the government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA
The spinoffs provided by NASA is one of the reasons the US has remained technologically cutting edge so many years against many competitors. Some of these include: - GPS
- MRI
- Artificial Limbs
- LEDs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies
Public perception of NASA and the view continuously pushed by GOP and other NASA cutting politicians has always been that it's a money waster when in fact it isn't. Cutting into NASA and education is short sighted and is sacrificing long term technological innovations to save a few pennies as a percentage of the gross national budget. If you want to cut costs, cut defense... it costs way more than NASA ever would while providing much less benefit. |
I'm all about cutting the defense budget, but funding for NASA is just welfare for educated people. My brother is a scientist and argues this with me all the time, but I feel that the money invested in NASA could be better spent growing the economy long term through investment in basic education. Not much point in sending rockets into space when half of your population can barely read or do basic math.