General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: We made Oxygen!!!! On Mars!!! With a toaster sized thingy! [View all]CaptainTruth
(6,588 posts)The money spent on the space program doesn't launch into space & disappear. The dollars go to NASA, then it goes into the pockets of their employees (jobs created) who buy cars & houses & all kinds of consumer goods & pay taxes. A lot of it goes to thousands & thousands of subcontractors who use it to buy materials (creating jobs & income for materials suppliers & their employees (jobs), who use it to buy cars & houses & all kinds of consumer goods & pay taxes) to make the millions of parts required to build a rocket & payload, & who pay their employees (jobs) salaries who in turn spend it to buy cars & houses & all kinds of consumer goods & pay taxes.
Each dollar spent on the space program gets spent & re-spent 3-4-5 times, & unlike tax cuts for the rich, the money really DOES "trickle down" into the pockets of millions of Americans who work in every associated business & industry that supplies materials, products, & services to support the space program.
I'm probably more aware of it than the average person because I live near Kennedy Space Center & every day I see how that space program money is going into the pockets of average Americans.
It's an investment.