The International Space Swimming Pool

Okay, so say you and several neighbors decide you all want to chip in together on a community swimming pool.

The pool will cost $160,000, and let’s say there are sixteen neighbors, including yourself, in on this plan.

That means a cost of $10,000 for each person.

But you’re already in debt. You owe over a million dollars.

Wouldn’t you agree that investing in a swimming pool would not be a smart financial decision?

More bluntly, it would be stupid.

Sixteen nations chipped in on ISS, the International Space Station. This project’s total cost was $100 billion.

Let’s assume those 16 nations divided the cost evenly (that isn’t likely, but let’s say that was the case). Breaking out the calculator . . .

$625 million per country.

This isn’t even figuring in the cost of sending people up there to man the station, the supplies, the administration, the maintenance, and the repairs.

Currently, international crews are scrambling to fix some major issues on the Space Station. How much will these repairs cost?

God knows.

The United States is in debt like never before. People are losing jobs, losing homes. We’ve seen a rise in people standing on street corners with cardboard signs.

Never mind that. We have important stuff to do. We have to fix the Space Station.

Going back to the swimming pool analogy, what would you do if you had to choose between pulling yourself out of debt or building a recreational spot? Opt out of the swimming pool project, or go ahead with it?

I don’t think you have to be an economics whiz to figure this out.

But hey, what do I know? I don’t think like a bureaucrat.

I’m sure whoever appropriates NASA funding knows what’s best for our struggling populace. If they decide fixing an orbiting chunk of metal is more important than fixing the economy, that must be the case.

After all, to question the bureaucrats would mean questioning our own intelligence in voting these yahoos into office.

And nobody wants to go there . . .