Why this Gen Xer thinks the iPod gen is right (Score 1)

I'm from "Gen X" and I've always thought the space program was a bad idea. People say, well, even if we drop the space program we'll still have poverty, famine, etc. Sure we will, but, I also think that as a great nation if we turned our resources toward one goal we could do the equivalent of putting a man on the moon--and by that I mean, we could do something that for previous generations was a flight of fancy. Now, for people who say, "well, we've gotten a lot of great research out of the space program that was turned into great products we use every day." I'd say, sure, but, my bet is that if we'd spent all that time on money directly on research for things here at home we'd be even further ahead today. I know there's a lot of value in the accidental discovery or the unforeseen use of breakthroughs in a very narrow field, but won't that happen as long as scientists are working long and hard to solve a certain problem? Trust me, I'm not at all anti-science, and think the space program served a valuable scientific and morale-building purpose at one time, but considering that our planet is falling apart, there are plenty of diseases we thought we'd cure by now, and we still barely understand how our brains work, I think there are plenty of "missions" that would get people excited about science and would serve a more useful purpose than moon bases (an idea that would be laughable if it weren't so criminally wasteful).