Moonshots Beget Misery

Is this really progress?

Artemis II, the U.S.’s latest manned moon mission, had a successful launch yesterday. Phew. I didn’t watch because after witnessing the Challenger disaster live on TV all those years ago, my nerves couldn’t take it. I commend these intrepid souls for their bravery. The one-time teen sci-fi freak in me can’t help but be impressed by the exploration of space and the discovery of things heretofore unknown. In a weird way, it also created a sense of our former normalcy as a once great nation that aspired to do great things; that despite the lunatics we currently have running the asylum, NASA is doing what it always does, which is to use our best and brightest minds to set ever higher goals for human achievement.

But the obvious question that is on everyone’s mind is, at what cost? The Artemis program is estimated to cost us taxpayers $100 billion, with a single launch costing $4 billion a pop. As much as I want the promise of Star Trek to come true, I also want our citizens to be fed, housed, and have medical care. I want everyone in our country to have the kind of education that could potentially lead them to a spot on the NASA team.

Some will say we can do both things. But can we? We seem to be able to find money for programs that will ultimately make the rich richer, but nothing for making life less costly. Space exploration isn’t just about the noble mission of new discoveries that benefit mankind, as we’ve been told. Rather, it’s an investment in long-term goals to exploit new markets. Mining and precious metals, for one. Zero-gravity construction, for another. After all, shooting rockets up with supplies for a moon base or space station is constrained by payloads; we’re going to have to figure out how to manufacture and build out there if these projects are to become a reality. And the defense contractor that figures out that puzzle will stand to make billions. (Companies like Made In Space—since acquired by Redwire—are already working on just that: 3D printing of infrastructure while in orbit, for example.) Ice capture at the moon’s poles will need systems to purify the water and systems to turn waste water into potable water. I’m sure there are other applications and systems I haven’t even thought of that will make someone, or some company, insanely wealthy. And all of it will be done on a for-profit basis.

And what do we get for that taxpayer investment in space missions? Do we get to claw back the investment in these programs our tax dollars made possible for improving life here at home? Does the U.S. government get a stake in these companies who will ultimately be raking in billions? The answer is no. Because once those taxpayer-funded entities start making money, they rarely pay their share of federal taxes, which would be the normal way for companies to give back to the people who made them rich. In other words, socialized funding, but privatized profit. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is a perfect example of this. The U.S. taxpayer has made this Nazi asshole the richest man on Earth. If that doesn’t make your blood boil when we have decent human beings living on the street, it should.

We could expand Medicare with the Artemis II money.

We could have free public college tuition with the Artemis II money.

We could have free lunches for kids in school with the Artemis II money.

We could house more than a half-million homeless people with the Artemis II money.

Or we could improve crumbling and outdated infrastructure—like, say, have high-speed rail—with the Artemis II money.

Instead, we, as taxpayers, are sold the bragging rights that the U.S. got to do this before China as if our mythic exceptionalism puts food on the table for struggling Americans. We get stuck with the bill without anything to show for it.

So, to recap, NASA is spending roughly $100 billion on the Artemis program. We are spending $1 billion/day on the Iran War (that Congress did not approve and that no American wanted) with the Pentagon preparing a request for another $200 billion+ for a war Trump says he already won. That means between these two efforts, we are over $300 billion, and I’d be willing to bet it’s more like half a trillion. For what? So Trump, his family, and his enablers can do insider trading and place bets in prediction markets? So defense contractors can use our money to do stock buybacks to enrich their shareholders? We are not angry enough that our federal taxes are going directly into the pockets of the 1% instead of being used to improve the standard of living for the rest of us.

The fact we haven’t had a storming the Bastille moment in this country is either a testament to our great restraint, or, more likely, that we have been shit on for so long we think this is normal. Spoiler alert: none of this is normal. That our tax dollars have been used as the 1%’s personal piggy bank is a national tragedy, not a point of pride.

Let’s start making noise about government working for us, and not the other way around. Perhaps it’s time to do as these people have done and not pay our federal taxes. Or perhaps we could urge our state governors and AGs to adopt Christopher Armitage’s suggestion for states to create escrow accounts to withhold federal taxes in protest of Trump’s federal overreach, or in this case, in protest of fleecing taxpayers to enrich a few. Money talks. Or should I say, the lack of money shouts very loudly.