🚀 go-pugleaf

In Space Digest V15 #339
Doug Mohney <sysmgr@king.eng.umd.edu>

flames me for writing down some facts about how people spend money.

>Lies, damned, statistics. Oh yah, and computer modeling, but that's another
>story.

He disputes that these are really facts but, like Ross Perot, he offers no
support for his claim.

>> Relating spending to entertainment is especially
>>pertinent, since the anti-science-spending argument is usually based on
>>the notion that such spending is frivolous and expendable.
>
>Nope. It means you're trying to justify pulling money in the form of taxes out
>of someone's pocket. If a consumer decides to spend money on entertainment,
>that's his/her decision. 

The person in question, an Hispanic woman who said the government ought not
to spend money on space because it only helps white people, already believes
that people should be taxed.  She just thinks this money shouldn't be spent
on something she considers frivolous.  My numbers were meant to help her see
how to put her money where her mouth is.  The question of the morality of
taxation per se is another matter.

>>  It is much
>>more difficult for someone to continue this line once they realize how
>>much they spend on true frivolity.
>
>Not so frivilious when you start adding up everyone else's "small, little"
>programs in the Big Picture. 

I'm just trying to show people how to see the big picture.  Also, I'm
assuming that spending on science increases the productivity of individuals
over time.  Maybe you would dispute that assumption.

>Me, I'd rather give NASA $80/year, and have the other $80 to spend on more
>entertainment....but, of course, Big Daddy Goverment knows best.

You obviously work at a university.  Does all of this university's money
come from private sources?

>                 Play in the intelluctual sandbox of Usenet 
>
>  -- >                  SYSMGR@CADLAB.ENG.UMD.EDU                        < --

_____________
Dale M. Greer, whose opinions are not to be confused with those of the
Center for Space Sciences, U.T. at Dallas, UTSPAN::UTADNX::UTDSSA::GREER
"Pave Paradise, put up a parking lot." -- Joni Mitchell