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From: shebs@utah-cs.UUCP (Stanley Shebs)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: the reason govt should not fund space exploitation/exploration
Message-ID: <2056@utah-cs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 25-Oct-83 21:06:39 EST
Article-I.D.: utah-cs.2056
Posted: Tue Oct 25 21:06:39 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 31-Oct-83 03:07:04 EST
References: houca.412
Lines: 25

Ye gods, I really hate to get into this in net.sf-lovers too, but
Tom started it, so -

One of the problems with depending on a laissez-faire system is
that anything which has only long-range benefits doesn't get done.
How many companies would have done any space work 25 years ago?
If the govt hadn't funded something back then, we might still
be experimenting with suborbital rockets.  I'd say the govt has
done a very good job, and I'm willing to let it continue...

I notice that despite Tom's use of the emotionally-loaded words
"beating" and "killing", that such punishment for breaking the
law is rare - even for major crimes.  I also notice that no one
seems to be resisting taxes because a small portion is spent on
the space program - so either everybody has decided, through a
rational process, that the expense is justified, or else everybody
is irrational, therefore has no rights, therefore it's ok to take
their money.  In fact, most of the tax resistance seems to be against
the expenditures for "defense".    Oh well, I guess we're all just
irrational, and doomed to be enslaved by the first decent AI
project (I predict within my lifetime, and that's a conservative
estimate - the optimistic ones say 25 years).

						Irrationally yours,
						stan the l.h.
						utah-cs!shebs