Re:meanwhile... (Score 1, Insightful)

Why invest in R&D or basic sciences at all, when there are more immediate "needs" like nationalized healthcare, medicare or more unemployment pay? Technology and R&D investment is not just a spigot a country can "turn off" and then "turn on" in a few years. The same is true with investment toward space programs. The country benefits in the long run from advanced defense technology and private sector innovation/spillover, such as the internet and potentially the autonomous vehicle. And failure should be expected when your experimenting with futuristic research if we can learn from the mistakes, as cliche as it sounds. True, DARPA could be better managed, but so could Google. You probably wouldn't have a medium to complain about this if it weren't for the DARPA Internet Program of the 1970s, also during a period of high unemployment, high inflation and Cold War uncertainty.