Times Are Tough

We can no longer afford to explore space. Or can we? From 1958 to 2008 we spent about 9 billion dollars a year on NASA. For the most part that has averaged less than 1% of our Federal Budget. During the 1960's NASA was funded the most at any time during it's history, anywhere from 2-4% of our budget, and what do we really have to show for it except for some American flag on some rock that orbits around our planet. Hardly worth such a huge investment. In the most recent years we have budgeted roughly 7 billion dollars to the program.   There are so many other things we could spend our money on and things of much more importance.

• We spend $10 billion in Iraq each month.
• Americans spend over $150 billion on alcohol each year.
• The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spends $175 million on vacant buildings.
• Taxpayer dollars used $1.8 million dollars toward a "museum of neon signs" in Las Vegas.
• The U.S. Census Bureau spent $2.5 million on one Super Bowl commercial (remember it?).
• The National Institutes of Health was given $800,000 to study the "genital washing program" of men in South Africa. 
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave $700,000 to the University of New Hampshire to study cow farts.
• We granted $3 million dollars to UC Irvine to play and study video games.
• We spend over $7 billion a year arresting and prosecuting people for marijuana offenses.
• Americans spend over $100 billion on fast food each year and $1.7 billion on vitamins. 
• We spend $18 billion on coffee each year.
• Americans spend $225,000,000,000 on gas (so strange I actually had to do the math on this. Every other items or things I could just Google "how much do we spend on x each year" and I could easily retrieve an answer. But not for this one. I had to find the average of one American, $1,500 a year, and multiplied it by 150 million, less than half of our population, just to come up with some ballpark figure. Totally not scientific and probably not accurate but isn't it odd I couldn't find this amount? I mean, I found out how much we spent on cow farts with relative ease. Maybe it's just my lack of searching skills.)
• We spend over $45 billion on our pets each year.
• Americans spend over $80 billion on tobacco products

Each American contributes mere pennies each year toward NASA. Times are tough and we need to save wherever we can. What do we really have to show for NASA anyway? 

“We see the transformative effects of the Space Economy all around us through numerous technologies and life-saving capabilities. We see the Space Economy in the lives saved when advanced breast cancer screening catches tumors in time for treatment, or when a heart defibrillator restores the proper rhythm of a patient’s heart….We see it when weather satellites warn us of coming hurricanes, or when satellites provide information critical to understanding our environment and the effects of climate change. We see it when we use an ATM or pay for gas at the pump with an immediate electronic response via satellite. Technologies developed for exploring space are being used to increase crop yields and to search for good fishing regions at sea.” ~ Micheal Griffin