To Infinity and Beyond, or Die

President Obama’s Space Panel released its report yesterday and as expected NASA needs $3 Billion more per year to continue to advance in space exploration. $3 Billion is 0.4% of the Defense Department’s budget.

Ignoring the fact that every dollar NASA spends returns ten dollars to the GDP, and two to three of those dollars are recovered in taxes; and ignoring that advances made in scientific research continue to advance the economy for decades as those findings filter out to private companies. The simple fact is any civilization that does not continue to advance dies.

Without Space Exploration filling our kids heads full of wonder, they will instead turn to thinking up ways to carve the biggest niche of the contracting economy for themselves.

In the 60s kids wanted to be astronauts and scientists and build a bigger pie for all to share. With the death of the Apollo program those geniuses turned to finance, slicing up declining resources in order to get a larger share for themselves.

Instead of new innovative technologies, the geniuses of our day gave us Mortgage based Derivatives and Default Credit Swaps. They created money out of nothing and last year we saw the result, that money based on nothing was cashed in at its real value nothing.

It’s time to get serious about building a better world or Western Civilization will go the way of the Roman Empire and fall to whomever decides to take it over.