Hey Jim, perhaps, if we close down NASA altogether the starving homeless guy will be the aerospace engineer with his worthless Phd.
The reality is, homelessness and hunger are, in fact, vastly reduced due to technological improvements innovated by the space program and science. Advanced farming techniques, advanced equipment, not to mention genetically optimized food crops have tripled our productivity in food production.
The hunger problem is not for the lack of having food, or a means to distribute it. (Our government subsidizes food crops and gives a large portion of it away to foreign countries and even dumps a huge surplus into the ocean each year.) The problem is a lack of politcal organization, will and motivation to do something better with our resources.
If we stop developing technology, though, we will devolve into a third world country. (Maybe then, it will be the Etheopians coming to OUR aid as they launch thier space program.)
-- "Hard work is not defined by the difficulty of the task as much as a person's desire to perform it.", DS251
