jtb@phs.UUCP (10/19/83)
I think there are counter arguments to Tom Craver's objections to the use of public (tax) money to open up space. One (perhaps the only proper) function of government is to fund those projects and services which benefit almost everybody but are hard to charge to individual users. For instance how would you run a private police force or weather service it would be hard to prevent people who had not paid their dues from benefiting from the service. The nature of many scientific discoveries is such that they can neither be patented nor retained as trade secrets therefore private companies are reluctant to fund many (but not all) types of research. Since the increase in our knoledge and technical capacity clearly benifits all of us by making the country more prosperous the government funds research. I think research on space clearly falls in this catagory. Note that this does not mean that private ventures should not be encoraged in every way possible. BTW This argument about government funds used to open a fronter has occured before. The first transcontinental railways required enormous government subsidies and people of Tom Carver's persuation objected violently. Jose Torre-Bueno decvax!duke!phs!jtb