When do you think the mankind will finally land on Mars?

[Alistair]

Qwark said:

Alistair said:

Think of it this way, Biden just announced 300 billions dollars for wealthy graduates in debt relief. That could have payed for a moon base. But people don't want it, they want free money instead. Wasted money on useless educations could cut the cost of education in half. It's our choice, moon or wasted money. If this was a game, you only have so much productivity, and you have to allocate it to building a base on the Moon or Mars, or not.

That would have paid to double NASA's funding for the next 10 years. Nope.

That's why the main thing Elon is doing is trying to cut costs. Cheap travel to the moon is the goal of SpaceX.

I raise you one better, 500 billion should be more than enough for the defense budget.That would save that amount of money each year. Even so there are better ways to spend that money. Given that there are more than enough problems down here as well. Mars and the moon are far less habitable than even the most extreme places on earth and are very difficult to remain habitable. But sure for some experiments a moon base could be useful.

Well the military budget is actually very small now compared to historically. Last time the US really cut spending, it caused the Korean war (most people don't realize that the US almost stopped spending after WW2 and only went back up because of Korea). I'd rather the US keep at least a small deterrent. The loan money is useless and will go to rampant consumption and inflation. At least the military has a purpose.

I just looked it up. Current military spending is 1/3 what it was just 60 years ago. I think because so much spending has been added to the Federal government budget for SO MANY THINGS that people don't realize that military spending is actually not that high. It has also dropped by almost 40 percent since the withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan started.

These are 2020 numbers but all U.S. discretionary spending is only ~2 trillion. Meanwhile mandatory spending is ~ 5 trillion. 

You want to go to Mars? Lots of money out there. Mandatory spending is retirement money and health care mostly. Social security is what it is called. If people just manage their own retirements through savings, and living with family members, raising the retirement age to 70, that would free up almost 2 trillion dollars per year in funds. You don't even have to touch the wasteful end of life health care spending. 

2 trillion per year could get you to Mars. Pretty sure.

Last edited by Alistair - on 28 August 2022