Re: OT: Drill baby drill!


"Just plain "Dusty"" <RV-dragger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:vOKdnXqzZsLJk5_UnZ2dnUVZ_t3inZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Bruce S" <bruce.snell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4901fcfb$0$2134$c3e8da3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
...
Yup. The same argument applies to the benefits of large programs, like
manned spaceflight. Sure, sending people to Mars would cost $100 billion
or so (although for the life of me I still can't understand *why*). But,
that money is not being loaded into a rocket and shot to Mars. It's
being spent *here*, on Earth, on things like creating new jobs and
developing new industries.
...
My only argument with that is that the money has to be taken out of the
economy to be spent on such programs. Sure, after the government steals
your money, they turn around and spend it again on goods and services,
right here. However, I think that you are a better judge of how your
money should be spent than they are.

Well, as an emerging libertarian I have to agree with you. OTOH; folks
left to their own devices will only spend on their own needs. Going to
Mars isn't a "need". It's an amorphous, although forward looking goal.
The benefits of achieving that goal can be nebulous at best. OTOH; I
don't think anybody foresaw the explosion of technology that was seeded by
the need to get to the moon. I remember the PNGS & ANGS (sp?) computers
from Apollo. Leading edge in their time (well near to it), about equal in
computational power and speed to a kids hand calculator today.

For things like the space program the argument could be made that it falls
under the "common good" part of Article 1 Section 8, but I think that is a
bit of a stretch. Such programs should be privately funded. On the other
hand, if you were to make the space program part of the military, you MIGHT
be able to convince me that it is a federal item instead of a private one.

Each day as we use the tools to putter about on this web, we're using some
of the fallout from that technological lurch. I'm not saying that every
technological advance is attributable to the space race. But the old
truism that "Necessity is the mother of invention", still rings true
today. I don't know that a Mars venture would further those achievements,
but I'm pretty damn sure a mission to Vega and that area of space
would...(:-o)! What I'd like to see is some sort of high-energy physics
research in deep space. Deeper then just earth orbit. Why deeper? In
case we find out something that goes "Boom!" before we find the control
panel...(:-o)!

You should be able to decide for yourself if you want to fund a party,
buy a car, get a new pair of shoes, or guild a space capsule for a trip
to Mars. Every time the government makes that decision for you, they not
only steal your money, they steal your freedom.

True enough. But how does one install streets for instance? Sewers?
Build schools and so on.

Those things all fall under the purview of local government. There should
be no federal involvement AT ALL unless it can be demonstrated that it is
for the "common good" - that is its very being will be beneficial to the
whole country. This is the case with interstate highways - while they may
provide some local benefit, their primary reason for being is to move the
military (and other goods) around the entire country. The same cannot be
said of local roads, sewers, schools, etc.

Some things have to be done collectively, and some privately. It's trying
to maintain the balance between those contradictory needs that's at the
heart of our problems today. And no. I don't have a ready
answer...unless they'd let me become dictator for a year...(:-o)!

Personally, I have no problem whatsoever figuring out which things should be
done by the federal government - those things (and only those things) listed
in Article 1 Section 8 of the constitutions. Everything else is local, and
at the local level, the people get to vote individually on every project.
That ensures that only those things the people want to pay for are charged
to the people - and they are charged only to the people who will benefit
from them.

Bruce



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