A friend of mine told me a new joke is going around in Italy
about the Bush administration’s new outer space plans:
“The Americans are sending people to Mars to make sure
it’s red.”
George W. Bush will soon officially announce his vision for
NASA, the centerpieces of which will be a human settlement on the
moon and a manned mission to Mars. Not many details are available
yet, but the White House has indicated that the lunar station may
not be finished until the next decade, and U.S. astronauts would
not reach the red planet until much later.
Flights to Mars and other planets might potentially be launched
from the moon station, which could serve as a testing ground for
new technologies and procedures. Should this initiative pass, NASA
will begin what could be decades of work and missions.
My two cents: This is a mistake. Don’t misunderstand me
““ I believe space exploration is a noble and worthy endeavor
that merits the U.S. government’s effort and money. The idea
that we could have people go to Mars or live on the moon would
surely be something to see.
However, the high cost of this plan makes it a bad idea. The
administration is not offering an exact price tag because, they
claim, estimating the bill for such a gargantuan undertaking is
impossible. Furthermore, it’s clear the missions would not be
completed until long after Bush, and even the next president, are
no longer in charge. It is safe to say, however, that we are
talking about a lot of money. It will cost billions of dollars, if
not trillions.
Thus, the question is: Is this the best use of U.S. tax dollars?
It seems to me a good use. But are there better, more important
uses for that money?
Yes.
Consider, for example, that in the United States right now,
according to a 2002 U.S. Census study, 12.1 percent of the
population ““ about 34.6 million people ““ live below the
poverty line. The Census defines poverty as a single, childless
individual earning less than $9,359 per year, or a couple with two
kids which collectively earns $18,244 or less.
Consider that between 3.8 and 6.3 million American adults go
hungry at some point during the year, according to a U.S.
Department of Agriculture study. Between 256,000 and 567,000
children don’t have enough to at eat some point in the
year.
The Food Research and Action Center, an organization working to
eliminate hunger in the United States, reports that in 2002, 34.9
million people lived in “food insecure” households. A
household is food insecure if it has “limited or uncertain
availability of food” or limited ability to “acquire
food … without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging,
stealing or other unusual coping strategies.” And this number
is up from 31 million in 1999. In other words, the number of
Americans unsure of where their next meal is coming from is on the
rise.
Consider that even people outside the political left now warn
that the U.S. budget and trade deficits threaten to wreck the
American (and world) economy. Notably, former U.S. Treasury
Secretary Robert Rubin, along with economists Peter Orszag and
Allan Sinai, recently presented a paper to the American Economic
Association in which they write that “substantial ongoing
deficits may severely and adversely affect expectations and
confidence.” Rubin also warns of a potential confidence
crisis that could tear the American economy to pieces. The
catastrophic consequences of such a meltdown lead him to advise an
immediate reduction of the budget deficit.
At the core, this issue is about priorities. What’s more
important: helping those 34.6 million Americans make ends meet,
paying for food to insure that 34.9 million don’t go hungry,
shrinking a dangerous deficit that is undeniably a threat to our
economy, or putting a base on the moon?
Any money spent on these proposed NASA missions is money that
can’t be used to help people right now on Earth. And it seems
clear that people need it. So, we must ask ourselves: Do we really
need to make sure Mars is red?
Raimundo is a fifth-year political science and economics
student. E-mail him at araimundo@media.ucla.edu. Send general
comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.