why is nasa more important than feeding starving people?

[dragonstar57]

"why is nasa more important than feeding starving people?"
I have heard this question a lot lately. (with the implication that nasa funding should spent on something elses like humanatarian aid but I have heard other variations such as sugesting the us should focus on its infustructure instead of having its head in the clouds)
it is hard to try to explain that advanseing technology will help everyone...
what are good argeuemtns for spending on nasa as oposed to giving it to starving people somewhere or on schools etc?

Edited December 24, 2012 by dragonstar57

[ajb]

what are good argeuemtns for spending on nasa as oposed to giving it to starving people somewhere or on schools etc?

Do you mean starving citizens of the United States and State run schools in the USA, or more generally than this?

 

 

[ydoaPs]

These people probably don't have a clue what NASA's budget is. And it seems a bit odd that they don't have an issue with the insanely huge amounts of money we spend killing people so we can have cheap oil.

[zapatos]

It is kind of a nonsensical question. No one is saying NASA is more important than feeding starving people. Our world does not work linearly. We have hospitals for people but choose to help animals at the same time. Your friends have probably decided to go on vacation at the expense of donating money to cancer research. We even spend money making remote control cars when the money could be spent instead on making automobiles safer. No one is suggesting one is more worthy than the other, and even if they were, we'd still do multiple things at once.

[ewmon]

The fact is that no one applies 100% of themselves to the most essential aspect of their lives, and the government, being representative of people, also does not do likewise. If feeding starving people is the most important aspect of your life, why are you online, or why waste time listening to music, or why own an iPod, or why download music, etc, etc? Why not spend all that time, money and energy feeding starving people? And the answer is because humans simply don't work that way.

[Moontanman]

many people have an inflated idea of just how much money NASA spends. During the war with Iraq after 9/11 the US spent more money per day on that war than NASA got in a year..

 

http://www.wisegeek.com/which-costs-the-us-more-the-nasa-program-or-air-conditioning-in-iraq-and-afghanistan.htm

[dragonstar57]

my op in other words. why is space research and exploration important, and why is that more benificial than whatever else we could spend it on.

[ewmon]

You have asked very good questions !! And t here are several answers, so people should read them all.

 

If you consider its beginnings, sending a satellite into orbit or landing men on the Moon is allied with warfare and the Cold War. So when the Russians sent up Sputnik to orbit over our American heads again and again (it showed they could do it with a nuke warhead — yikes!), we had to best them (even if only psychologically), so the race was on for the Moon. It was part of the Cold War.

 

We aren't conscious of it so much now, but I can remember the first TV broadcasts, usually sport events like the Olympics, from around the world that were "live via satellite". Now we have them all the time, and we don't even blink an eye. Sirius Radio. Satellite cell phones. GPS — and everyone uses GPS. Dish TV. Weather satellites (and all the very accurate days-long forecasts that we didn't have 50 years ago). Spy satellites, of course. I could go on and on.

 

So we are very interested in "up there". But what do we now have "down here"?

 

We have overpopulation, global warming, climate catastrophes, toxic waste, nuclear waste, energy crisis, food crisis, etc etc. And the possibility that we can literally "escape" this mess by going up there should be about the ratio of the space exploration budget to the rest of the budget. What do we keep hearing again and again — Earth-like planets found, Earth-like planets found, Earth-like planets found, ... .

 

Besides, we don't see its effect every day, but the new technology required to do things in space or to get into space has been very helpful down here. As is often the case, it's tons easier to tone down a wild idea than to spice up a so-so idea, but you need the wild idea or technology first. Check out some space-age technology spin-offs.

Edited December 25, 2012 by ewmon

[iNow]

The concept of what is and what is not important does not serve us well as a metric here. The concept of importance is subjective and will vary from person to person. Instead, you should look at the return on investment. When it comes to the ROI of space spending versus other types of spending it is massive, economically, technologically, psychologically, inspirationally, etc.

 

As others have noted, we can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time, but the benefits and ROI of space spending should not be so readily dismissed. There are even links that show specific technological advances that took place from the Apollo missions alone, for example.

[x(x-y)]

It makes me wonder about how much we might have achieved by now if, for the last 10 years, the military spending and space spending budgets were swapped around for all countries around the globe - so that the space spending was astronomical, excuse the pun, instead of the military spending.

[Moontanman]

my op in other words. why is space research and exploration important, and why is that more benificial than whatever else we could spend it on.

 

 

Mostly because what we spend on NASA is a drop in the ocean compared to what we spend on other things. Your OP insinuation that NASA's budget would somehow make a significant difference in feeding the poor is misleading. In fact jobs based in the technology developed by research into space travel does far more to alleviate the plight of the poor than giving the money directly to the poor.

[tomgwyther]

Thought I'd share this. it is the Billion pound o Gram for 2012. although issued for the UK, it's somewhat salient for this topic showing where a westernised country spends it's money in relation to alleviating poverty.

Pay particular attention to Tesco revenue* and Africa's debt. If we didn't spend on cheap consumer goods, we could do a lot to help impoverished third world countries.

 

 

*Tesco - similar to Wal-Mart

Source: informationisbeautiful.net

 

p.s. I've always loved the way intangible numbers are presented by 'Information is Beautiful.' It brings it all to life. Try doing a similar thing for your own household budget, or whatever. all you need a graph paper and colouring pencils!

 

[The Peon]

There are plenty of cheap or free methods to feed people who are needy. We are just too wasteful...

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/21/food-waste-americans-throw-away-food-study_n_1819340.html

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_waste

[Moontanman]

There are plenty of cheap or free methods to feed people who are needy. We are just too wasteful...

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/21/food-waste-americans-throw-away-food-study_n_1819340.html

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_waste

 

So when should I come around your house for the left overs?

[The Peon]

 

So when should I come around your house for the left overs?

 

 

These pics are from a dinner I hosted for some friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And yes there was some waste

Edited January 9, 2013 by The Peon

[Moontanman]

looks good, can you tell us what each thing is?

[SomethingToPonder]

funding for nasa should be increased not cut.
It's unbelievable that in Times like this when so many impending Crisis's are upon us apparently that we are not funding more space program research.
Humanitarian aid is important, but throwing money at the problem does not make it go away, CLEARLY! i mean how many billions of pounds in the last 10 years have been sent to africa and apart from a few wells and villages (slight exaggeration) there is not much difference. The country is still as far behind us as it was.
Now dont get me wrong, I believe that saving people's lives is important. But when you stop trying to advance the human race and stop aiming for the stars literally then you are setting of a chain reaction that will not end well.
Bank bailouts jesus here we go again, How much money will be swallowed into the black hole of banking? it is such a shame to see all that money being thrown at country's banks only to make no difference whatsoever, It took greece 3 bailouts for instance before they even started recovering.

We need to be focused on getting to the next stage of space exploration no matter what.Not throwing money at countrys who will never throw any contributions to anything back and expect more money.

[The Peon]

looks good, can you tell us what each thing is?

 

 

Alright, I didn't mean to hijack the thread so this will be my last post on it about foooooood

 

Top pic on the bottom left of the table there is a plate with boiled casava which is then fried in a pan to crisp the outside. I made a mojo sauce to pour on top of it (in one of the small serving cups). Mojo sauce is basically garlic and onion fried up in olive oil with some spices like cumin mixed in. Next to the casava is over-ripened fried plantains. When they are over ripe they are very sweet after you cook them.

 

In the second pic center, you see salad tossed with seasonings (cumin, pepper, salt, and a few others). It's topped with olive oil and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Left of the center pic is a large pot of double cooked black beans using my grandmothers family recipe. You basically cook up the beans the day before you serve them, let them sit overnight then recook them before serving. They are one of the highlights of the dinner. On the right is garlic steamed white rice, to use with the black beans if you desire. Top left dish is chopped up Jalepeños if you want some kick in your beans. Top right is sliced lemon and lime for the meat..

 

Speaking of which, the last pic is what is referred to as "Lechon". It's basically a large pork butt roast, seasoned and marinated the day before in a mixture of lemon, lime, orange, pepper, salt. oregano and cumin. It is then slow roasted in an oven for about 4 hours then broiled to blacken and harden the skin. It's deeeelicious.

 

I can cook all sorts of things, from this type of Cuban cousine to Indian food to the most wicked garlic loaded mashed potatoes you ever ate (I am famous among my friend and family for them).

Edited January 9, 2013 by The Peon

[zapatos]

 

 

Alright, I didn't mean to hijack the thread so this will be my last post on it about foooooood

 

Top pic on the bottom left of the table there is a plate with boiled casava which is then fried in a pan to crisp the outside. I made a mojo sauce to pour on top of it (in one of the small serving cups). Mojo sauce is basically garlic and onion fried up in olive oil with some spices like cumin mixed in. Next to the casava is over-ripened fried plantains. When they are over ripe they are very sweet after you cook them.

 

In the second pic center, you see salad tossed with seasonings (cumin, pepper, salt, and a few others). It's topped with olive oil and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Left of the center pic is a large pot of double cooked black beans using my grandmothers family recipe. You basically cook up the beans the day before you serve them, let them sit overnight then recook them before serving. They are one of the highlights of the dinner. On the right is garlic steamed white rice, to use with the black beans if you desire. Top left dish is chopped up Jalepeños if you want some kick in your beans. Top right is sliced lemon and lime for the meat..

 

Speaking of which, the last pic is what is referred to as "Lechon". It's basically a large pork butt roast, seasoned and marinated the day before in a mixture of lemon, lime, orange, pepper, salt. oregano and cumin. It is then slow roasted in an oven for about 4 hours then broiled to blacken and harden the skin. It's deeeelicious.

 

I can cook all sorts of things, from this type of Cuban cousine to Indian food to the most wicked garlic loaded mashed potatoes you ever ate (I am famous among my friend and family for them).

Mmm Mmm. Making me hungry!

 

funding for nasa should be increased not cut.

It's unbelievable that in Times like this when so many impending Crisis's are upon us apparently that we are not funding more space program research.

Humanitarian aid is important, but throwing money at the problem does not make it go away, CLEARLY! i mean how many billions of pounds in the last 10 years have been sent to africa and apart from a few wells and villages (slight exaggeration) there is not much difference. The country is still as far behind us as it was.

Now dont get me wrong, I believe that saving people's lives is important. But when you stop trying to advance the human race and stop aiming for the stars literally then you are setting of a chain reaction that will not end well.

Bank bailouts jesus here we go again, How much money will be swallowed into the black hole of banking? it is such a shame to see all that money being thrown at country's banks only to make no difference whatsoever, It took greece 3 bailouts for instance before they even started recovering.

 

We need to be focused on getting to the next stage of space exploration no matter what.Not throwing money at countrys who will never throw any contributions to anything back and expect more money.

 

I didn't actually see an argument in all of this for more funding for NASA.

[Bill Angel]

Interesting chart here about the budget of NASA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA#Annual_budget.2C_1958-2012

 

As a percentage of federal budget expenditures NASA's share of the budget has been in decline for the past 20 years. It is now down to less than .5%.

So I think that if one is trying to cut "fat" or "pork" from the federal budget to fund other endeavors, there are better places to look, such as eliminating special tax breaks for the oil industry.

[Moontanman]

 

 

Alright, I didn't mean to hijack the thread so this will be my last post on it about foooooood

 

Top pic on the bottom left of the table there is a plate with boiled casava which is then fried in a pan to crisp the outside. I made a mojo sauce to pour on top of it (in one of the small serving cups). Mojo sauce is basically garlic and onion fried up in olive oil with some spices like cumin mixed in. Next to the casava is over-ripened fried plantains. When they are over ripe they are very sweet after you cook them.

 

In the second pic center, you see salad tossed with seasonings (cumin, pepper, salt, and a few others). It's topped with olive oil and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Left of the center pic is a large pot of double cooked black beans using my grandmothers family recipe. You basically cook up the beans the day before you serve them, let them sit overnight then recook them before serving. They are one of the highlights of the dinner. On the right is garlic steamed white rice, to use with the black beans if you desire. Top left dish is chopped up Jalepeños if you want some kick in your beans. Top right is sliced lemon and lime for the meat..

 

Speaking of which, the last pic is what is referred to as "Lechon". It's basically a large pork butt roast, seasoned and marinated the day before in a mixture of lemon, lime, orange, pepper, salt. oregano and cumin. It is then slow roasted in an oven for about 4 hours then broiled to blacken and harden the skin. It's deeeelicious.

 

I can cook all sorts of things, from this type of Cuban cousine to Indian food to the most wicked garlic loaded mashed potatoes you ever ate (I am famous among my friend and family for them).

 

 

I'm a bit of a cook too but my wife is the real deal, southern cooking, she puts Paula Dean to shame...

[iNow]

 

 

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/64210_531909080163441_13374439_n.jpg

Edited January 19, 2013 by iNow

[SamBridge]

I'm not saying nasa is "more important", but I think it can be broken down based on spending. Right now the US is spending billions of dollars on wars, and NASA even with its limited budget, as a government program does have involvement with the armed forces, not only that but the US tries to develop programs for countries to help their own people as does France and China and thier developed nations.

[menageriemanor]

off topic. Really sorry. What did you waste? ie throw away and not eat later? Ever thought about chooks? Or at least compost heap/worm farm? No old age/disabled pensioners you pass and say hello to, that you could broach bringing extras to? I used to have a bunch of OAPs and every time I found super markdowns, in meat/dairy, I'd buy extra and drop them off stuff. Sometimes I was the only one they saw in the day, and if the their pets were sick, I'd take them to my cheap vet, as I'm in animal rescue. Ended up costing me, but it really perked up their days, and I could help them with things and lift their mood, reassure them, or tell them they need to go to doctors, etc. Instead of cheapest cheese, they had gourmet styles, those little excitements, little pleasures to look forward to, later. often that was their excitement of the week.

 

Actually, slightly warped off topic, but at least dealing with feeding people, if not NASA.. Near vego but those spuds with garlic sound mmmm!!!

[Moontanman]

off topic. Really sorry. What did you waste? ie throw away and not eat later? Ever thought about chooks? Or at least compost heap/worm farm? No old age/disabled pensioners you pass and say hello to, that you could broach bringing extras to? I used to have a bunch of OAPs and every time I found super markdowns, in meat/dairy, I'd buy extra and drop them off stuff. Sometimes I was the only one they saw in the day, and if the their pets were sick, I'd take them to my cheap vet, as I'm in animal rescue. Ended up costing me, but it really perked up their days, and I could help them with things and lift their mood, reassure them, or tell them they need to go to doctors, etc. Instead of cheapest cheese, they had gourmet styles, those little excitements, little pleasures to look forward to, later. often that was their excitement of the week.

 

Actually, slightly warped off topic, but at least dealing with feeding people, if not NASA.. Near vego but those spuds with garlic sound mmmm!!!

I agree, my wife and i feed the homeless through our church. Most of the food we buy our selves by looking for food that is on sale or going out of date. We have fed as many as 300 in one day. But this has nothing to do with NASA of course.