Preach On, Brother O'Rourke!
We used to do great things. Nowadays... we don't try to reach as high.
For crying out loud, people are going nuts that NASA sent a rover to Mars. And... I know, that's nice. Except that we already did this back when Disco was still cool, so I don't know what the big deal is about going back now. Let me know when we can plan a weekend trip to the moon- then I'm interested.
It's easy to come up with reasons that we don't strive like we used to. But I'd rather find the next generation of goals to shoot for, the next mountains to climb, the next set of impossible tasks to achieve.
We have the tools. We have the talent. We just need the ambition.
You CAN'T be serious. It was LITERALLY five days ago you were complaining we don't have enough money. NASA did all it's great exploration on the big, scary government dime you know.
ReplyDeleteI am serious- The Sears Tower was built by a private company (Sears, Roebuck). Same with the Empire State Building.
ReplyDeleteBut if you want to make the argument that only government spending can be ambitious, fine. In 2009 we had a $900 billion stimulus. Can you name one thing this money was spent on? Show me the 2009 equivalent of a Hoover Dam.
You didn't mention the Sears Tower. You specifically talked about NASA. Don't complain to me because I read your post accurately. :)
ReplyDeleteIf you want to make it a competition tho, sure I'm game.
The government of the United States put a man on a rocket, shot him off the planet to another celestial body hostile to life, and returned him safely. This forever changed the perception of what is possible through human endeavor, and ushered in a new era of plastics, chemical and material technology, digital signal processing, and countless other advances that still reverberate to this day.
The Sears Roebuck company built a very tall building.
Hmm.... Gosh you're right. Those are very close after all. Let me sleep on it and get back to you.
I completely agree with you that it's unfortunate we're spending all this money and effort on dealing with the massive fiscal and economic damage caused by a Republican administration and compounded by greedy unregulated capitalism run amok. I think it would be a worthwhile ambitious goal to try and make sure that Republicans and unregulated capitalism never have the opportunity to so very badly screw things up again. Now THAT would be worth a Hoover Dam. Maybe two.
OK- I have a lot of responses going in different directions. Putting them in bullet points:
ReplyDelete* In 1911, The Wright Brothers built the first airplane. Within 30 years, people could fly all over the world.
In 1957, rockets were first fired into space. In 1969, we landed a man on the moon. Forty two years later... we haven't moved forward. We've regressed, in fact. Why?
* Look, if you want to take this thread and turn it into "Republicans bad! Capitalism bad!", you're welcome to your opinion. The fact is, we're 15 trillion in debt, and it's because we're so badly in debt that the government can't afford to try great things, if you're of the opinion that governments should be in charge of trying great things. And it's both parties that have that blood on their hands.
* But (as I said, I'm jumping all over the place), my point wasn't political. It's more... we use to strive for great things. Nowadays we don't. Why? What can we do to fix this?
Look- if you think the best way to improve the economy is take $900 billion from the taxpayers and spend it, there are economic theories that back that. But at least DO SOMETHING with the $900 billion. Put someone on Mars... replace all of the coal plants with nuclear fission plants... fix the infrastructure (roads, bridges, power grids) of the entire country. Hell, build 900 modern schools so that we don't have to worry about not having the tools to teach the next generation.
I'm a Conservative- I don't think, when we're $15 trillion in debt, we should borrow another trillion. But if you're of the opinion that it's needed to borrow that billion, for God's sake make it count.