Yes, I agree. Good point.
Space exploration consumes much more of our resources.
But tell me one thing, do not things like the cinema, games and sports gulp in much more money?Are these not wastes? Apart from leisure and pleasure, what do we get from them? If money is to be moved to solve pressing socio-economic problems like poverty, famine and over-population, shouldn't it be removed from these activities first?
Poverty and famine exist and will continue to exist-- not because we have too few resources, more money can always be issued, but because in the first place we have too many mouths to feed (over-population) and in the second place, some people "live to eat", wealth is not distributed equitably (most said poor countries are infested with corruption).
Space exploration is a huge investment, I don't deny. But it's a productive one. Anyway, only developed countries-- those who can afford the money-- dare to invest in aeronautics. The NASA does not snatch away food and potable water from the poor to fill its fuel tanks. Besides, space stations are collective investments-- rich countries like the USA, Japan, Russia and others group together to spread risks, especially financial ones.
How about wars? And the military? Are these productive? Or rather destructive? How much money do we lose in them? It's better to ask how much money is left after?? LOL
Man-driven problems, are they to be alleviated, if not solved, must be done with rationale. The solution does not lie in our pockets, but in our brains. If poverty is to be lessened, it's by starting to diminish corruption and wars. And money helps to aggravate these two factors.
Were there no space exploration, we would still be living in delusion. We would still believe the Sun revolves around the Earth; night would be when the Snake God swallowed the Sun God Ra; no satellite-- no internet, no television, no mass communication; there would be no universe at all; no notion of time; the moon would be a big mass of cheese suspended on the sky; eclipses would be bad omens, we would be doing unreasonable sacrifices to please the Gods (can you imagine your skin being plucked?); we would never understand phenomena like Global Warming and we could even be destroying our planet in a better way.
Maybe then... we would be like our mammoth-killing forefathers, ignorant beings who still believe the Earth is flat and would be wasting a whole lifetime trying to get to the extreme of our 'flat' Earth...
Nice idea the debate, carry on
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