As I said today in class, our annual defense spending is $522 billion. This accounts for 47% of all military spending in the world (no other country spends more than $100 billion on defense). The next 29 countries combined spend a total of $521 billion on defense.
As for the idea of government agencies such as NASA using tax dollars to fund space travel, I think there are better and more efficient ways to pursue our goals in outerspace. Instead of just having NASA, I think it would be better if we had several competing private firms. If nothing else, this would free up almost $20 billion dollars for education and social programs. And most people will agree that private firms are more efficient than government agencies, with their waste and bureacracy. If the idea of a private NASA sounds weird, its not: billionaire Richard Branson is pioneering the idea as we speak. Within the next couple of years, Branson's company plans to be launching "spaceliners" into space. Anyone can by a ticket aboard one of these aircraft, provided that they have about $200,000. Now, Branson has turned down an offer from the U.S. government to conduct scientific experiments in outer space and insists that he only plans to send people into space but I think there is room for other firms to fill NASA's role.
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Ok this isn’t going to be a long comment back I just want to say I think its ridiculous we spend all this money on defense and can’t even provide our soldiers with the best equipment. I don’t know how many people know this but I have a couple friends and friends of my mom who had their sons go and I found out when discussing the whole situation one day that the government doesn’t even provide soldiers with some equipment. One thing I know they make those who volunteer to fight buy themselves is bullet proof vests. That is so wrong in my opinion. Were spending all this money on defense, the people who go into the service are volunteering and we can’t give them the very best? Yet we can spend millions on fixing up other countries and helping them build a government. I just fine the whole thing upsetting and disgusting.
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