Why are we spending billions and billions on space expeditons when we have schools without textbooks?

Question

Seems to me like we should be taking care of home first. Is it justifiable to be spending billions on space travel when there are kids in the inner city who can barely read and people living in extreme poverty? What do you think?

Answer 1

I don't think it is a question of space program versus textbooks. There's a whole lot things that we're budgeting money for, the space program being just one of them. Together, these budget items represent our national priorities. Now, reasonable people can disagree about whether one item in that list is more important than another, or about what should be added to or removed from the list. Personally, I think that the space program is a valuable endeavor, that has brought and will bring real benefits to our nation and the world. That doesn't mean that I want to take food out of the mouths of children or deny them good education to fund it. The decisions about what gets funded and what doesn't have to be taken in totality though and looked at in perspective. How much does the space program cost our country? How about grain subsidies for farmers? Tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans? A day in Iraq? You have to look at everything we are spending money on and how much in order to make these kinds of decisions.

Answer 2

I think the space exploration is a waste, too...but just where are these schools with no textbooks? More money is actually spent on inner-city schools than any others (an average of over $10K per year per student- almost three times as much as it would cost to send them to some private schools)- Maybe it's the people who live inm the inner city...and their lifestyle that is the problem?
The real question should be: Why in America, do we practise the redistribution of wealth? Why not let each man keep his own money and do with it as he pleases, rather than use it for forced "charity" (really extortion) which doesn't benefit anyone...as can be seen by a walk through any inner city (if you're brave enough to go)...50 years of welfare, food stamps, subsidized housing and free education has produced exactly what, other than new generations of people depenmdent upon those things, and increased crime and drug use?

Answer 3

I assume you are referring to the USA. It is a shameful situation. The priorities of the governing "class" seem to go more for show than serving the people.
I didn't know you still had schools without text books - that's embarrassing for the wealthiest, most powerful country in the world. But I do know there are people living in extreme poverty. The same happens in Canada - the country many of you Americans think is "socialist" (I wish that estimate could be just a little closer to the truth than it is!)
Top priorities of a government should be:
ability to protect the nation; taking care of the poor, the weak, the helpless citizens of the country; seeing that everyone has access to adequate education; universal health care; law and order; then, after having taken care of those things, helping the country's economic growth. Those first items will create an atmosphere in which individuals can prosper economically, and bring prosperity to the nation.
In countries as prosperous as ours are, there is no excuse to have homeless people, citizens starving to death, or people deprived of health care. And both the USA have all three of these.
EDIT:
Health should be publicly funded, and space exploration should be privately funded. (If it is seen to be that important, the private funding will come in). Unfortunately, the opposite is what happens.

Answer 4

First, extreme poverty does not really exist in developed countries. Even the poorest can scrape by. Extreme poverty would be people starving to death like in some African countries.

Next, the 2 are unrelated. It's like asking why they're spending billions on Iraq instead of on schools.

It's not by fault of one program, but by lack of trying by the other. The schools don't seek out funding aggressively enough, so they don't get it. NASA seeks it more aggressively so they do get it. It's about management I think. The real question is why the schools choose to be underfunded.

As for NASA it gets funding because that funding and research gets used to write the stuff in textbooks, it seeks knowledge, which will go into classrooms eventually. And the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are an attempt to pacify the problems caused by that area so that kids have a chance to grow up without fear.

In the end, schools need to demand more though.

Answer 5

very simple my friend, as usual when the time comes for hum ens to go to space and live there because one day we have too. Guss what the first ones who will end up there will be the rich folks. That's why they are preparing the commendation's for rich folks. As far as our inner city goes well,
it is obvious most of our leaders do not give a dame about it.
and if there is one who does the cor opt ones will find something of that persons past and then as we all know what exactly happens afterwords. Well i believe one of the reasons that a government does not want to have smart people is, Well then we smart ones will start no zing around and finding things that are totally wrong. The government does not want that because they have to answer back. So far the way things are, the back of middle class is broken and middle class is losing and losing and they getting poorer and poorer. The systems is setup to occupy most population thoughts and minds for things that are not important like all those stupid, movies, musics,and extras and also by keeping us in all sorts of problems that the only thing most of us can do is just barley survive. That is the reason, when most of us are busy just to survive and most of us do not have time or energy or the power to fix things for the good of humanity. So they rather keep us busy oh, just like TAX season, our bills, our rents and daily head ekes. Another words they do not want us to know, the TRUTH.

Answer 6

Even if we stopped the space exploration and devoted all the funds to the schools there would still be book shortages. How many millions have they received from state lotteries? Yet the book shortages persist. A better idea would be a serious audit of public school administrations and teachers unions, but don't expect that any time soon.

Answer 7

I think that both space exploration and improved schools are needed items. We spend so much money on items that aren't going to help us improve ourselves and the world we live in that I'd hate to see something as valuable as space exploration's funding halted. Of course kids not being able to read is absolutely something that we need to allocate our funds to. Maybe would could cut back on things like funding wars and rebuilding other countries and take that money and invest in our schools. It starts with the teachers. If we want good teachers, we have to pay them better, train them better and become involved in making sure that we're not putting our kids futures on the back burner.

Answer 8

I think that investing money in great projects and being visionaries is what have made America the great nation that it is right now. Scientific exploration and the develop of new technologies have always set us apart from other nations, I don't think we should give up on that. There is other places where we can get money to cover more urgent necessities. Lets stop going to war every five years for example.

Answer 9

define "extreme" and "poverty"
Kids in africa have it a lot worse than kids in inner cities. Is it justifiable that we spend billions of dollars on education when there are kids starving in africa?
The point is there will always be poor people, because rich and poor are relative terms. People 1000 years ago would find those inner city kids lives luxurious.

Answer 10

we don,t need space expeditons they are just trying to find a way out,of whats coming,what we have all created for or selfs,and as far as more text books oh yea like i am really for killing more trees so we can heat up the plante some more ..yea get ready cuz God is here already,