Everyone's defense of NASA is that they have generated a lot of knowledge. The question no one is asking is that what's the cost for generating that knowledge?

Everyone's defense of NASA is that they have generated a lot of knowledge. The question no one is asking is that what's the cost for generating that knowledge? Wikipedia suggests that NASA has spent 418 billion dollars from 1958 to 2008. Do you really think we got our money's worth? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Budget http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Budget Could you name few inventions derived from NASA's knowledge which have helped us tremendously? Compare this to the research/inventions done by private corporations. And as I pointed out in my other reply, why should Government take money from people, give it to NASA and NASA will return that money back to people by providing jobs? Why not reduce taxes so that we can eliminate waste by having NASA as the middleman?