Originally Posted by
Turbosina
Some would say that's not the job of government, that we should leave it to market forces to sort out. To that I would say, if it had not been for the United States government, if we'd relied on private industry to take us into space, we still would be looking up at the moon and wondering when, if ever, we'd visit it.
The space program, like the Interstate Highway system and the Manhattan project, was driven by national defense concerns. There is no such support for energy r&d among today's voters, who have other spending priorities. Politicians are afraid to get too far ahead of the public in raising taxes or cutting entitlements.
