Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The first British person in space

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 66 posts

Re: The first British person in space

#51

Post by cs02rm0 »

dtf wrote: post #38
cs02rm0 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NHS consumes about half of all day to day public service spending. It is singular in its ability to suck spending out of UK government.

That seems like a lot. Can I ask where you got that figure? Is "day-to-day" denoting some kind of specific budget? I just tried to Google it and their AI responded with "The NHS and social care account for roughly half (49%) of all day-to-day public service spending controlled by the Westminster government.", linking me to a report from the The King's Fund [1]. But on reading that report, it seems to say only that 49…

It was widely covered at the time of the Spending Review last year, based on government figures.

Day-to-day is the routine, required cost of running the state, without long term infrastructure spending.

Re: The first British person in space

#52

Post by TMWNN »

rob74 wrote: post #3

I wasn't aware of it until now, and I was surprised to find out that it took until 1991 for a Briton to fly to space - and with the Russians/Soviets no less, not with the Americans. But, if you look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_space_travel_by_na... , it looks like the Soviets recognized the propaganda value of giving a ride into space to citizens of "allied" nations (putting it in quotes because the…

>But still, once they started taking foreign citizens with them, I would have thought that Britain would be among the first on that list. Between 1984 and 1985 there were a Canadian, a Saudi, someone from the Netherlands and a Mexican, and then there was a long pause until 1992, presumably because of the Challenger disaster.

Without the loss of Challenger, a Briton would have flown in space on the shuttle in the 1980s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zircon_(satellite)>

Re: The first British person in space

#53

Post by [deleted] »

goodcanadian wrote: post #4
rob74 wrote: post #3

I wasn't aware of it until now, and I was surprised to find out that it took until 1991 for a Briton to fly to space - and with the Russians/Soviets no less, not with the Americans. But, if you look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_space_travel_by_na... , it looks like the Soviets recognized the propaganda value of giving a ride into space to citizens of "allied" nations (putting it in quotes because the…

Canada effectively bought its participation in the US space program with Canadarm.

[deleted]

Re: The first British person in space

#55

Post by wat10000 »

nradov wrote: post #44
celticninja wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the point re the health service? We should be enriching people like musk instead of looking after the health of citizens? We spend money on loads of stuff just wondering why you think the NHS needs to be singled out as if it is using resources that could be used to find space exploration/launches.

Healthcare is a bottomless pit. Demand is effectively infinite so no amount of funding will ever be enough. That's not to say we should eliminate it, but there has to be a balance. We shouldn't dump so many resources into healthcare that it strangles other sectors like space launch that are pushing human society forward for the long term. Whether that enriches certain individuals or not is completely irrelevant. And…

The listed figure is about 3,500£ per year per person. Seems quite low for what it is.

For comparison, the US government spends something like $5,500 per year per person on health care, and doesn't come even remotely close to covering the entire population with that spending.

Re: The first British person in space

#56

Post by nradov »

wat10000 wrote: post #55
nradov wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Healthcare is a bottomless pit. Demand is effectively infinite so no amount of funding will ever be enough. That's not to say we should eliminate it, but there has to be a balance. We shouldn't dump so many resources into healthcare that it strangles other sectors like space launch that are pushing human society forward for the long term. Whether that enriches certain individuals or not is completely irrelevant. And…

The listed figure is about 3,500£ per year per person. Seems quite low for what it is. For comparison, the US government spends something like $5,500 per year per person on health care, and doesn't come even remotely close to covering the entire population with that spending.

OK, so what? The US also has a much higher GDP per capital and is the world leader in pretty much everything related to space. If the UK wants to avoid being left behind then they need to adjust priorities. Or they can stick with stagnation.

Re: The first British person in space

#57

Post by wat10000 »

nradov wrote: post #56
wat10000 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The listed figure is about 3,500£ per year per person. Seems quite low for what it is. For comparison, the US government spends something like $5,500 per year per person on health care, and doesn't come even remotely close to covering the entire population with that spending.

OK, so what? The US also has a much higher GDP per capital and is the world leader in pretty much everything related to space. If the UK wants to avoid being left behind then they need to adjust priorities. Or they can stick with stagnation.

The point is that this "bottomless pit" you describe is not actually very expensive in practice. You imply that too much is spent on the NHS. Based on what?

Re: The first British person in space

#58

Post by nradov »

wat10000 wrote: post #57
nradov wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, so what? The US also has a much higher GDP per capital and is the world leader in pretty much everything related to space. If the UK wants to avoid being left behind then they need to adjust priorities. Or they can stick with stagnation.

The point is that this "bottomless pit" you describe is not actually very expensive in practice. You imply that too much is spent on the NHS. Based on what?

If the UK wants to have a place in the future global economy then they're spending too much on things other than space launch. The NHS is one of those other things. In order to achieve different results they would have to reallocate spending priorities, and generally shift from a managed decline policy back to a growth policy. But if UK citizens prefer to have continued stagnation then that's also an option.

Re: The first British person in space

#59

Post by throawayonthe »

rob74 wrote: post #3

I wasn't aware of it until now, and I was surprised to find out that it took until 1991 for a Briton to fly to space - and with the Russians/Soviets no less, not with the Americans. But, if you look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_space_travel_by_na... , it looks like the Soviets recognized the propaganda value of giving a ride into space to citizens of "allied" nations (putting it in quotes because the…

> the Eastern European nations weren't really given the choice if they wanted to be USSR allies

that's generally how alliances work, out of necessity...

Re: The first British person in space

#60

Post by nephihaha »

wat10000 wrote: post #57
nradov wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, so what? The US also has a much higher GDP per capital and is the world leader in pretty much everything related to space. If the UK wants to avoid being left behind then they need to adjust priorities. Or they can stick with stagnation.

The point is that this "bottomless pit" you describe is not actually very expensive in practice. You imply that too much is spent on the NHS. Based on what?

As I was saying the other day, I think the main problem with the NHS is misallocation of funds. It receives a lot of money and has some good buildings (when it doesn't sell them off), yet that doesn't always translate into good patient care.

However the notion that we have a binary choice between American style healthcare where you pay through the nose and the NHS where you wait for years is a false one. It would be better to study continental Europe and Japan maybe.

Post reply on HN