The announcement that China will put three people into space this month is the exclamation point for the end of U.S. leadership in space.
Was it not enough that China owns so much of the debt the U-S has taken on to stay afloat in The Great Recession?
How do those budget hawks, who've been calling for bigger and bigger Federal spending cuts, feel about handing over the reigns of the future to China? Do they really think the private sector will match government spending by China (and Russia!)?
We're mere passengers to the future now.
We're dependent on Russia, which at great expense, will carry astronauts to the ISS, which we had a bigger hand in building than anyone. And we're dependent on China too.
What a step down from the days of Gemini and Mercury and Apollo. First we lost our vision, our national-identity as a leader in the space "race". Now we're lost our actual position. Back of the pack. Hitchhikers. Also-rans.
America is also losing the Human Condition Race. I think Walter Mondale had it right. Americans really didn't need to be sending men to the Moon until every Worker could afford to buy health care for his family and send his children to college. I grew up near Redstone Arsenal in Boaz & lived in West Montgomery after graduating from law school. I've seen all these optimistic, intelligent children in Alabama who graduate from high school only to wind up in jail because their parents can't afford to prepare them for adult life. They don't get to attend college or get certified for any kind of career. Many of those who do complete their education can't find work because the engineers & other professionals who have been working since before they were born & should be retired by now command such high salaries & spend it all on expensive homes and cars that they don't need. They all claim to be so smart, but they are just broke at a higher level.
ReplyDeletePeople generally want to work, but the opportunities are too limited. It's impossible to keep everyone from falling through the cracks, but we've got to make the American Dream possible for the majority of its people. In another decade, all of the highly paid veterans are going to be too old to work or six feet under. Then, America will be looking to its prison population and its unemployed for leadership.