Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 172315" data-attributes="member: 158">Col. Hardisson:I couldn't agree more. I would in fact go one step further in saying that NASA and Space exploration assist the economy of all governments more than anyone realizes. Without the funding that has gone into NASA over the past 40 years, many current advances in plastics, ceramics, and consumer conveniences that we now have absorbed into our daily lifestyle - WOULD NOT EXIST, or would be in their infancies even today. Space exploration, the advancement of human knowledge, and the power of cooperation engendered by the sharing of a common human task can accomplish many things that would not be considered possible.Green Knight:Take for example, missions and the goal of colonization to Mars. I can conceive of at least 10 to 20 new technologies that would benefit from the funding needed to enable prolonged human existance in hostile environments, such as extraterrestrial ones. Examples include:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">New techniques for feeding large populations</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Improved insulatory and energy-dispersive materials</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Improved methods for generation and recyclable sustenance of breatheable air</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Processes to ensure human survival against rapid compression and decompression</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Improved and more economical interplanetary propulsion systems</li> </ul>All these problems and a dozen more are necessary to solve in order to plan for colonization of extraterrestrial locations - and every single one means new jobs, new markets, new opportunities, and new standards of living for everyone on Earth in time. What seems impossible was just as impossible to war-weary 1950's and 1960's United States culture - and dozens of NASA technologies from the Apollo and Mercury programs are integrated into our society today. It is hardly wasting money if you invest it in the betterment of tomorrow's ills rather than today's.Zappo: economic theories abound, and what works in one country does not necessarily work in another. It's a more difficult thing to encapsulate all of economics into one theory than anyone should have a person believe.Finally, regarding the whole "charge the trucking company more money" scenario: any economist worth his salt will tell you that charging taxes on a business will cost the consumer the difference. No business on this planet will suck up the cost of new taxes themselves. They will pass it to the convenience stores, who will then pass it to the consumers. The ones who will pay any road taxes are those poor web designers who don't use the roads, but instead go down to the 7-11 store to pick up a snack or a pack of smokes. Oops, those cigarettes are 3.50 a pack? Guess we see where the taxes went now. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> The ones who CAN'T charge somebody else down the line for the increased cost are those who actually "pay the taxes."Sci-fi Tax? No thanks. I'll be the Snidely Whiplash who robs the NEA (or better yet the IRS) of government funds and passes their funds over to the NASA for further advancement of knowledge and the human condition. YMMV.Good night, all.</blockquote>

Verification