WHERE SHOULD GOVERNMENT FOCUS BE?

In priority order

1) Provide for National Defense
2) Maintain / expand Interstate Roadways
3) Oversight of Commerce / Fiancial Markets
4) Collect Taxes/Tarrifs to support SSI/Medicare/Medicaid
5) Space Exploration
6) R&D in areas such as FDA

Everything else goes to the individual States

My list would be only somewhat different than yours woiyo but we are in no serious disagreement.

As far as space exploration goes, I won't be able to afford a ticket, but I would otherwise sign up for one of those space tours in a heartbeat.

I further think we have nowhere near all the science that we're going to have in the not too distant future and that we'll solve the seemingly impossible barriers of time and space so that space travel to distant worlds will not only be possible but commonplace.

Nice topic.

Some of the areas coincide with each other when it comes to space utilization -

* Defending our borders from known enemies - there literally is no advantage like the space-to-earth advantage. With developed spaceborne facilities and mobile vehicles, you literally hold the power of life and death over other countries, and you don't need any super-special lasers or weapons to do it - just a big rock.

I used to work on a system at the University of Texas (in an ancillary fashion, but nonetheless) called Thor's Hammer. It consisted of a set of about a hundred crowbars with tiny rocket engines mounted aft and a little digital camera on the stern. Position them in a geosync orbit over our coastal territorial waters, and if someone encroaches and you want them gone, you make one radio call and they are gone. Leaves 35 foot holes in things. No pollution or radiation, just weight.

* Managing the economy and national wealth - there exist over a hundred thousand asteroids in the asteroid belt which have mineral compositions roughly similar to the metals we mine on earth, including iron, copper, rare earths, heavier metals (lead gold silver!) etc... if you fetched one of these asteroids, put engines on it and brought it back - all something we had the know-how to do in the 70's - you would have as much money, in terms of real-world physical resources, as every other person on the planet combined.

Seems like a good investment to me. I've seen projections at anywhere from 50 to 100 billion and a timeframe of 15 years to see it happen, and that isnt' out of the pale for our modern society to achieve.

Utilization of space opens up other doors for technological advances, communications, tourism (as Fox mentioned earlier), a whole host of scientific research possibilities. That means new markets and new money pouring in to America's industries.

A side benefit for those 'Dobbsians' here at home? The space race is likely to fall out along national lines, to a certain degree, so we're sure to see an emphasis on American production and manufacturing of the parts necessary - new jobs.


* Stopping global warming or other perceived threats to humans - most of the new knowledge we have about GW has come from the advent of satellite technology. It is difficult to say that an increase in utilization won't help us achieve new insight and knowledge of the situation.

I've seen plans for dropping exploding shells full of dessicants from space into the middle of Hurricanes before they get a chance to hit ground; Same for busting up tornadoes with lasers. Satellites and computers watching our crust can warn of earthquakes and tsunamis in time to save people; humanitarian aid can be delivered to remote areas with accuracy; the internet can be extended to cover literally the whole world wirelessly.

Naturally, it is important to diversify the human race onto as many planets as possible, at the earliest possible moment.

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While I do think that other concerns are important, I really believe that we are at a critical point in our history - we are afforded the chance to make all of space, America. To colonize the solar system and galaxy with the ideas of equality and justice, freedom. These may sound like grandiose terms, but it is quite literally true that the potential for expansion in space in terms of colonization of lives AND ideas is infinite. If we get a firm toehold in the beginning of it, we can make sure that those ideas we hold dear are the ones which the vast majority of human descendants revere as well.

Cheers for starting an excellent topic. In the future, I'd like to discuss -

- Funding for NASA
- Licensing and problems with private spacecraft
- Applied vs. theoretical research in space
- space stations, research labs, weapons
- solar power collection in space -> ground
- politicization of space - treaties and alliances and enforcement
- colonization of other planets and moons

Cycloptichorn

I need to add to my list.

7) Provide oversight and enforcement through EPA

Space exploration is necessary as even if we "cleaned up the environment" yesterday, we are draining resources from this planet. We will need to colonize other "planets" to perpetuate our species.

Immigration and boarder control is covered by National Defense.

I believe States should compete for the "taxpayer" and be responsible for education of their citizens (with some federal oversight) and should compete for business/jobs with competitive tax systems.

Great topic and my bet is most peoples list will feature a "smallness" of the Federal Govt.

bm

Cyclop did raise one consideration I hadn't thought of but that will have to be resolved at some point. Right now I think the unspecified policy is that everybody and nobody owns space and the stuff that is out there other than our own satelittes, etc.. But would we really want an Iran or North Korea or anybody else to have control of space and what is permitted to be installed and/or move around in it?

How do we do this without making space another military front?