To simplify what a lot of people are arguing, dollars spent by the government are dollars going into science that would have otherwise gone to <some place that

To simplify what a lot of people are arguing, dollars spent by the government are dollars going into science that would have otherwise gone to <some place that isn't science>. To a country with little established science, this can be a gigantic booster shot to their domestic science abilities both through funding and in the case of space programs, inspiring youth. As we awknowledge that a healthy scientific community is an economic boon, one could say that money is taken from A, redistributed to B by the government, and in the process creating industry C which will hugely benefit the country in the future. A modest, very simple example is the US National Park Service. It runs a profit! Government dollars create the Parks, and obviously they are a good that is worth more to the public than the taxes it cost to make them. But that generally would not happen without Government intervention.