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Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

latimes.com

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Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#51

Post by consumer451 »

rtkwe wrote: post #14
frogperson wrote: post #4

Trump admin is just so selfish and parasitic. How do they not understand that science, research, and innovation are what drive the economy they are trying to rob? Truly evil and incompetent.

I'm not sure they care. Research etc goes against a lot of their ideological stances from climate policy to gender to economics (eg: there's barely a trickle down the cups at the top are bottomless) so they're just destroying the institutions that oppose them so they can make more money and retreat to their redoubts or just be dead by the time the repercussions of things like climate change become unignorable.

In a thread here a few months back, I said that one good thing about a new social media platform was that it was full of scientists and journalists.

Someone asked, ~"what is about those two groups that you like?"

I had to think about it for a minute, but the reply was ~"neither group is perfect, but it's their actual job to find and present the truth."

I have no idea why it took me so long to realize that this is why authoritarians hate both groups so much.

Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#53

Post by hackyhacky »

goodluckchuck wrote: post #42
hackyhacky wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please explain how cutting science and medical research helps the country. While you're at it, I'm also curious how you think cutting profitable departments (such as CPFB) or white-collar law enforcement helps anyone other than the president's friends.

Public research is just government subsidies to corporations, which acquire IP for pennies on the dollar for their own profits while leaving taxpayers with the chaff. It’s a net loss for the public good who has to pay twice.

> government subsidies

No, public research is an investment. The job of the government is to spend money on things that help the country's people. That includes roads, the military, and science.

Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#54

Post by potato3732842 »

aaomidi wrote: post #33
roenxi wrote: post #16

[flagged]

Sure, let’s start having Californians not have to pay federal taxes. I genuinely am not joking, if the govt wants to go this direction then let’s welcome states rights to keep their money within their borders.

It wouldn't actually be a big deal. Some states would win a little and some would lose a little but it wouldn't be life changing for anyone. The cents on the dollar in and out flows fluctuate a lot year to year.

The bigger problem is that damn near every state bureaucracy has forgotten how to actually write and evaluate their own damn rules for all sorts of expenditures that are currently spec'd out on a "follow fed guidelines so we can apply for grants" basis.

Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#55

Post by julienchastang »

palmfacehn wrote: post #15

Wherever budget cuts are proposed, you can rely upon detractors to present the issue in apocalyptic terms. If we believed all of these claims, then it would be impossible to cut the scope of government spending. Furthermore, if we accepted the premise promoted by some commenters here, then research, which is presented as incredibly valuable - would be unable to be funded or valued in the private market. For these rea…

The problem is the throw out the baby with the bathwater approach to the current administration. Moreover, government funded science often already operates on lean, shoestring budgets. In order to make America great you need to be at the forefront of science and technology, not retreat from it.

Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#56

Post by jasonjayr »

palmfacehn wrote: post #20
nemomarx wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

who said he's not cutting enough?

For a starting premise, we might define "enough" as a balanced budget.

That also assumes that a "balanced budget" is the best macro-economic policy for a country of our size.

Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#58

Post by tokai »

alistairSH wrote: post #47
hackyhacky wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a balanced budget is your goal, only two steps are required: reduce military spending, increase taxes. No need to cut research. In practice the current budget bill is wildly unbalanced and will vastly extend our debt, despite extensive cuts to important programs.

We could zero out the military budget and that still doesn't get us anywhere close to balanced. Even cutting 100% of discretionary spending barely does the job. We either need massive cuts in mandatory spending (fundamental changes to social contract) or increased revenue (politically not viable). There's also near zero evidence we actually need a balanced budget for a healthy economy.

>increased revenue (politically not viable)

Is that really true? Seems like its just an issue of how you frame it.

Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#59

Post by HPsquared »

tomalaci wrote: post #10

These kind of policies and that amortization tax law for software development will probably encourage quite some exodus of talent. Would it be to Europe or South East Asia, though?

USA pays engineers like 3x as much as those places. It's still global brain drain destination #1.

Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#60

Post by mistrial9 »

pixl97 wrote: post #5
duxup wrote: post #2

Talk: "America first!" Actual policy: "America... whatever..." The scale of anti-science policies is historic in their scale and even breadth of topics.

Oligarchs first... much like Russia.

this article is about NASA.. the history of corruption, authoritarianism and consolidation of power in private hands would be books longer than Balzac.
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