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We could take the money for rockets to send astronauts to space from the money we're currently spending on rockets that kill people

Oh but they are. But it's not the "space rocket" pot, it's taking from every pot to put in the "murder brown people rocket" pot.

Well, not THOSE kinds of rockets anyway. Slap a warhead on there and they'll cut whatever they want to fund it.

Correct. Because the cure sick people pot essentially isn’t really funded in the way that the military industrial complex is.

I'll take a look, thanks!

Of course but Department of defense created gps 50 years ago.

Well not THAT rockets pot.

Considering your insightful post, how might Moob users, perhaps even this Easter, unite to champion solutions for a brighter future?

Yes, they are. It's all one pot, pretty much.

Didn’t Trump just drastically curtail overseas aid? Yet the USA can still fund a project involving astronauts repeating what was achieved half a century ago. Why not sort out the problems on this planet before exporting human folly & selfishness beyond it?

Yeah, the real problem is that they keep taking from the "cure sick people" and "rockets" pots and put them in the "war stuff" or "money for rich people" pots.

There's now an offshoot branch of space exploration that is not about science and learning, but rather is essentially a eugenics project, to recreate civilization in a different image. In its indifference to science it's also very scammy, because it's totally out of touch with reality.

Theres a nuance to this that i think a lot of people overlook, or don't know. What if i told you that Musk and Trump ban be bad, but SpaceX and the Space Force can be good? Yes, Elon is the CEO of SpaceX, but he is really just the money guy and talking head of the company. The actual engineers who

I'm not so sure about that, The new head of NASA is one of Elon's billionaire buddies. That whole "all civilian" crewed mission a few years ago was his way into that....

you have been repeatedly told that fixing poverty and space exploration is not mutually exclusive. What isn't clicking? Take that trillion and it can go to healthcare, social safety, housing, ending homelessness and poverty, infrastructure and science, including space exploration, all at once.

Also we’re destroying the planet and there’s never money for stopping that. But at least there will be space junk in orbit for a few millennia as Earth turns into Venus?

Feeding the poor and having a space program aren't mutually exclusive though. Look how tiny NASA's budget is

Space stuff actually helps a lot of people in a lot of ways. One of the more straightforward is satellites monitoring conditions over the whole Earth — fires, temperature, soil conditions, releases of gas, etc. www.earthdata.nasa.gov

I’m still waiting for someone to list what specific advances or benefits this mission is bringing. What is the specific return on investment here? Everyone trots out your argument but never follows up.

People are absolutely unaware how small a share of the federal budget is going to NASA

Sadly I feel like we have Marvin Gaye to blame for this. It's just hard to put nuanced policy analysis into a song.

MLK: A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom".

Tired and bleary. Exactly. All the Trump fatigue of a decade seems to have suddenly descended on us, and his behavior is like a toddler’s screaming tantrum at 2 a.m.

The mediocre destroy what they can't understand and the orange demagogue and his minions are 𝘢𝘭𝘭 mediocre, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮! 😒 It's a prerequisite to admission! 💁 “Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.” - Sherlock Holmes via Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

They've thrown away so much soft power and trade, getting rid of USAID, lose-lose all round

it would be. but that world wont exist unless people are willing to be just a bit less stupid about how they deal with each other.

What is weird to me is the national labs were basically created because science was considered key to national defense. Other government funding went to research about things like crops, which were also seen as a national interest. Somewhere along the way the grift pushed out the science…

American healthcare is indentured servitude. Our politicians are always on the side of the corporate oligarchy.

This reminds me of how so many billionaires across multiple sectors came together to throw money at the Cuomo campaign when he was running against Mamdani for NYC Mayor. They spent an exorbitant amount. Way more than they would ever have to pay in taxes with the proposed tax legislation.

Spending $5 to make sure $1 doesn’t go to someone that deserves and taking $20 from people that do.

It's the people who represent us, given that role by heavy gerrymandering, that vote against our interests because they're too interested in filling their pockets with money from insurance companies who would lose everything if universal healthcare is implemented.

"temporally embarrassed billionaires"...

And the people who “don’t deserve it” aren’t white, NATURALLY.

Money is never the barrier in the U.S. It’s insecurity. I.e., some Americans are so insecure they want to keep quality services from the poor, whom they feel are “less deserving” of nice things, mostly so they can feel superior about themselves. They are afraid of what equality might look like.

Wow, that makes Project 2025 all the more loathsome.

Well said. Agreed.

Yep. Not to detract from Katie's point, however, that the reason the US ranks poorly in many measures of quality of life is that powerful people want it that way, not that we can't afford it.

I write pretty much exclusive on this topic. Basically, I used math and political science to debug our systems. I posted a few relevant articles for you.

We never talk about our leader's lifespan & lifestyle. They can't serve themselves and us. They had to pick. So I ran the numbers. These people who govern us, do not give a shit about us open.substack.com/pub/mrnobody...

Why do we have a government? What is their actual job description? What are they doing instead?

Congress sold our republic, for money. open.substack.com/pub/mrnobody...

Would be a game changer, paying for each other’s healthcare. No longer bankrupting or exploiting the sick, holding them to ransom for their medication. Y’all might stop hating and scamming each other so much.

Haha yeah fuck the next generation getting excited about space, I mean what do we even need future scientists for anyway? You're so right, keep that jaundiced view sharp.

Someone gets it. I worked briefly on LRO. Actual science, not billions in pork. pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/lro...

The countries that manage this best aren’t the ones cutting science budgets — they’re the ones who handle taxes, bureaucracy, and long-term priorities more effectively. The US has the resources for both. What’s really missing is consistent political will. 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ 2/2

Gil Scott-Heron catchin’ strays today.

Yeah, money from the “cure sick people” bucket goes to the ultra wealthy, people whose yachts require little yacht escorts, like a carrier group.