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His point is that if India can afford their space program, UK should not be sending them aid. Ie just like if your cousin decides to buy a Ferrari, you probabl
by omonra 10y ago
His point is that if India can afford their space program, UK should not be sending them aid.
Ie just like if your cousin decides to buy a Ferrari, you probably should not have to to support him financially.
- kristianc 10y agoThat example misconstrues what foreign aid is actually about. It's not about propping up poor economies: it's a diplomatic tool. You may have perfectly legitimate reasons to support your Ferrari buying cousin, if you thought he was going to buy a house (or on the scale of an economy, build a factory in return).
- JoeAltmaier 10y agoIts about a lot of things. Including disaster relief, and humanitarian ideals. Along with the diplomacy.
- geon 10y agoAnd I disagree with that point. India is a large country. I believe having a space program is a sensible long term investment. A space program is not a luxury.
- douche 10y agoInvestments in space are an investment in the future of mankind. In a sense, a big chunk of the funds in either space exploration or international aid are effectively lit on fire - except in one case, it's in literal burning rocket fuel, and in the other wanton corruption... It's not like the USA or USSR didn't have their share of problems or pockets of crushing poverty when they were engaging in the space race, either.
- omonra 10y agoI guess the point is that some benchmark should be used to determine whether a country is rich enough to take care of it s citizens. You and the commenter above disagree whether space program can be considered such metric.
- yongjik 10y agoIMHO, It's more like your cousin decides to buy a $200 textbook on Organic Chemistry. Space Program is more of an investment than luxury.