Why do taxpayers prefer to spend money on trips into space instead of on the foster care system?

Looney Tunes

LOL! Good one.

Perhaps people would pay to send the foster kids to space. The space station probably has better living conditions than many of the foster kids do.

To believe that "science" has occurred in space is a misnomer.
Yes, we have added communication satelites, spy satelites, etc... BUT, we have done very little to actually advance human health. Most "human health" science advances have occured right here on planet earth in university labs.

tony b

Ben is right.. There are many benefits from the space industry which ahve saved many lives..
Having worked for DCF in florida.. which is now privatised I can tell you the problem isnt the lack of money its poor management and the fact that the system is now out to make a profit.
The benifits from space medically, scientifically have saved many countless lives. It lead to safety drvices for cars trains and Airplanes. Thus saving countless lives.
You cannot really compare the two.

queencarmella71

same reason the gov. would rather spend money on basically anything other than education for kids.

mary z

Because if you look in the newspaper or look at the internet on any given day there is a new sick story of child abuse. People get sicker and sicker every day. Yet politicians do nothing about it. When the baseball players had the steroid scandal Congress was interested enough to have hearings..But, obviously there is a child abuse epidemic and no politician is sticking their heads out and saying that the child protective agencies in this country are broken and need to be fixed. I personally think child abuse should be a federal crime because kids are the most precious commodity the US has. But, there is no money in child abuse so you will never hear a politician say anything until the next child is killed in their jurisdiction and than they will talk about it for a few weeks until the story blows over.

bluelotussmellslikebananas

I happen to be a taxpayer that does not want to fund the trips to the Moon, again... Or the nifty 2 million dollars space suites [still in prototype.] From what I understand, we do need defense satellites up there but I don't know if we need to actually go and do the work. Many countries have other countries do the heavy lifting. Catch a ride on their space craft. So to speak.

I have always been of the position that before we go off to destroy another planet, let's fix the one we have.

Ben H

Half the medical science industry has been furthered by space-age materials, drugs, and our understanding of the human body that are researched and created for the space missions. Technology has also improved providing better transportation, computer processing (which is responsible for more advances in mapping the human genome, bio-informatics, pharmaceuticals, information exchange, etc etc).

You are looking at the issue from a very one-sided and narrow view.

Rick

Because it sound more fancy then foster care.

sowevecometothis

Is there a federal foster care system? I don't think so.

Nathan

I was thinking something like what Ben H. said. I saw this complaint somewhere before. Maybe what is accomplished because of space travel should be better publicized?

You could say it's kind of a gamble though. We don't know if we'll always figure out enough stuff to merit the 1 billion dollars each time. I'm not a betting man myself, so I'm actually more interested in spending tax dollars on other things (like the foster care system).

Sly

Because the people in power, despite lip service to the contrary, really don't give a Rat's A** about women and children, the least powerful segment of society. And, foster children don't vote.

The mental health community has experienced the same thing, and surely the people who have mental illness did not choose their suffering. Nevertheless, their funding has been slashed year after year and president after president. As long as people in need are seen as a liability instead of a responsibility we will have the same thing from those who are in charge.

There is one thing to remember when touting the space program because of how much we have gained scientifically. We also gained a lot of ground, scientifically, from the Holocaust. The price outweighed the advantages, in my opinion. We need to be extremely cautious of that. Sometimes our ethics don't catch up with out ability in time to do some very dicey things.

Elmo watches you at night

Kids are annoying, space is cool

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