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NASA has a positive ROI for the American economy. Hastily making cuts into programmes that generate significant economic and scientific value for your nation is

by e2le 1y ago

NASA has a positive ROI for the American economy. Hastily making cuts into programmes that generate significant economic and scientific value for your nation is a losers strategy. I'm sure it'll also have other deleterious effects on the economy such as brain drain which would be difficult to reverse. https://www.space.com/nasa-economic-impact-us-2023-report https://www.space.com/nasa-economic-impact-us-2023-report

timr 1y ago
> NASA has a positive ROI for the American economy. Citation absolutely required. Amongst other things, NASA has set huge piles of money on fire (literally!) building a rocket program that should probably be shut down entirely. Now, whether or not these particular scientific programs are a net positive investment is a more subtle point that is certainly up for debate, but "NASA has a positive ROI for the American economy" is pure assertion. Speaking as someone who is generally pro-science -- to the point where I actually went out and got a PhD, in science -- we can't just assume that "science" is net beneficial to society. From direct experience, most science is just useless crap, and a lot of scientific funding is pure political patronage, dressed up in a white lab coat. I do think it's a situation where the line item is fairly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but in a world where the government is quickly going broke, hard choices must be made, and cutting this kind of stuff will also not be the end of science.
- whatshisface 1y ago
  Here's a citation that says the ROI for NASA is 3x. https://www.space.com/nasa-economic-impact-us-2023-report https://www.space.com/nasa-economic-impact-us-2023-report
  - timr 1y ago
    That’s not a study, that’s a report issued by NASA. You have to be painfully credulous to believe that that NASA would find anything to the contrary.
    - whatshisface 1y ago
      They presented a logical argument with facts and statistics, which deserves evaluation on its merits.

by e2le 1y ago

timr 1y ago

> NASA has a positive ROI for the American economy. Citation absolutely required. Amongst other things, NASA has set huge piles of money on fire (literally!) building a rocket program that should probably be shut down entirely. Now, whether or not these particular scientific programs are a net positive investment is a more subtle point that is certainly up for debate, but "NASA has a positive ROI for the American economy" is pure assertion. Speaking as someone who is generally pro-science -- to the point where I actually went out and got a PhD, in science -- we can't just assume that "science" is net beneficial to society. From direct experience, most science is just useless crap, and a lot of scientific funding is pure political patronage, dressed up in a white lab coat. I do think it's a situation where the line item is fairly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but in a world where the government is quickly going broke, hard choices must be made, and cutting this kind of stuff will also not be the end of science.

whatshisface 1y ago
Here's a citation that says the ROI for NASA is 3x. https://www.space.com/nasa-economic-impact-us-2023-report https://www.space.com/nasa-economic-impact-us-2023-report
- timr 1y ago
  That’s not a study, that’s a report issued by NASA. You have to be painfully credulous to believe that that NASA would find anything to the contrary.
  - whatshisface 1y ago
    They presented a logical argument with facts and statistics, which deserves evaluation on its merits.