7 ms·

People are struggling to afford every day life and we are surrounding by crazy things every day like cellphones talking to satellites in space. On any objective

People are struggling to afford every day life and we are surrounding by crazy things every day like cellphones talking to satellites in space. On any objective measure it is definitely amazing to send humans to the moon, but there are more pressing issues for most people right now. If we as a species had more of our ducks in a row we may be able to better celebrate this as the achievement for humankind that it is.

wat10000 6mo ago
1969 wasn’t exactly all flowers and sunshine either.
whateveracct 6mo ago
[flagged]
- Bnjoroge 5mo ago
  the hell does that have to do with anything
  - philipallstar 5mo ago
    They could've employed the astronauts to be waiters in Africa.
  - whateveracct 5mo ago
    the comment i'm replying to is saying that the moon mission is morally dubious because we haven't solved domestic poverty
    - ailef 5mo ago
      He didn't imply it's morally dubious, I just read it as "people have more pressing matters to direct their attention to than this".
    - Bnjoroge 5mo ago
      that's absolutely not what he said lmao. he said it's far down on our list of priorities, which is true.
raverbashing 6mo ago
Yeah your life must really suck if you only care about immediate hurdles and pains without making room for hope or creativity
- trial3 5mo ago
  you’re making their point, you just don’t know it yet
- jameslars 5mo ago
  And your life might be very privileged to so flippantly disregard anyone’s reality that is just that difficult.
  - philipallstar 5mo ago
    It's that difficult but they're also commenting on hn.
    - pests 5mo ago
      And? Is that a hurdle or something? You know homeless people are allowed to go on the internet? Smartphones? You'll find other homeless or desolate people here on HN - I won't name anyone out of respect but if you read enough comments here over time you would recognize them.
- onraglanroad 5mo ago
  Well yes. For too many people, life does suck for that very reason. That's not something to mock people for; it's a problem to apply your mind to and fix.
  - JumpCrisscross 5mo ago
    > it's a problem to apply your mind to and fix In kids, sure. In adults, not sure it’s worth the effort on a society wide basis.
bluegatty 5mo ago
nah, it just seems like that on Twitter. We have more prosperity by far than we've ever had in history, this is a time to celebrate. We have our 'ducks in a row' more now than in the 1960's when we went to the moon because of a cold war and nuclear annihilation / escalation. My grandparents were born on farms with no electricity, plumbing, there was no real 'police' no social services, no healthcare, no antibiotics, 10% of children did not make it past age 1. That's in living memory. Despite the insanity on the news, it's mostly drama, and we still have more people coming out of abject poverty than ever. We have 'modern world problems', they are real problems for sure, but they are of a different scale entirely. Frankly, it may never even get that much better as we may be hitting diminishing marginal returns on 'progress' - we now have to figure out how to live 'long lives and stay healthy'. It's a fine time to go to the moon.
- izzydata 5mo ago
  It is a fine time to be going to the moon, but we could be doing multiple productive things at the same time. It just doesn't surprise me that there are so many people that are not caring so much about this.
  - bluegatty 5mo ago
    We are doing multiple productive things. Zillions of them. They are like 50 companies making robots right now that will soon do a lot of work. There are advances in many fields. Headlines are dominated by something else, the 'news' is not a good reflection of reality.
    - westmeal 5mo ago
      What about the workers that will be eventually replaced by said robots? You think they're just going to get free money to exist? Most likely they'll end up in the private prison system or in institutions while the corporations pocket all of the savings. Things are a lot more complicated than they seem I think...
      - 5mo ago
arscan 5mo ago
I don’t think people are spending their time on more pressing issues. I think they are just are hooked on an endless stream of content that is built for addiction and is always within arms reach.
lurking_swe 5mo ago
people have been struggling to afford every day life for decades. So that’s nothing new. Unless only people in the 1st world count as people lol. You’re either emotionally consumed by the human struggle or not, it’s a personality thing - in my opinion. You’re allowed to be poor and a nerd, unless I missed the memo. I’ve met poor and wealthy people that are excited by space.
- didgetmaster 5mo ago
  Struggling to meet our basic needs is not a recent phenomenon. It has been a part of the human condition for millenia, not just decades. Some people think that if we can just eliminate our 'struggles' by building AI tools to do the hard thinking or robots to perform all our labor; that civilization would become some kind of utopia. I don't believe that. Progress happens when we do hard things.
  - WalterBright 5mo ago
    > for millenia Since the first life appeared.
DaedalusII 5mo ago
[flagged]
remarkEon 5mo ago
I see that "whitey on the moon" is back. If it makes you feel better, the amount of money the United States spends on space is a very small percentage compared overall entitlement spending. There is always going to be some level of inequality, so your maxim that we should only spend money on space exploration when those problems are solved just isn't workable. The enormous amount of money the United States spends on "solving" inequality and poverty begs the question of if that's even an effective or efficient allocation of resources in the first place.
- Eisenstein 5mo ago
  1. Do you think that it is the mission that is misguided, or the methods, in "solving" inequality and poverty? 2. What would you rather the money be spent on?
  - remarkEon 5mo ago
    1. Both. 2. I don't understand the question. What money?
    - deleted 5mo ago
      [deleted]
    - Eisenstein 5mo ago
      1. Why would eradicating poverty not be something to strive for? 2. The money you mentioned as basis of the comment I replied to. But if you have a cognitive disability which precludes the ability to follow a conversation's thread, I can summarize the previous state at the start of each response.
someothherguyy 5mo ago
For some numbers: The Artemis program has an estimated cost of 93B since 2012 [0]. As a comparison: "Between 2020 and 2024, $771 billion in Pentagon contracts went to just five firms: Lockheed Martin ($313 billion), RTX (formerly Raytheon, $145 billion), Boeing ($115 billion), General Dynamics ($116 billion), and Northrop Grumman ($81 billion). In comparison, the total diplomacy, development, and humanitarian aid budget, excluding military aid, was $356 billion."[1] 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#cite_note-NASA_OIG_2021-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#cite_note-NASA... 1. https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/costs/economic/us-federal-budget https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/costs/economic/us-federa...
verzali 5mo ago
America has spent more than the equivalent of Artemis blowing up yet another middle eastern country for no good reason. I know which I'd rather get the money.

wat10000 6mo ago

1969 wasn’t exactly all flowers and sunshine either.

whateveracct 6mo ago

[flagged]

Bnjoroge 5mo ago
the hell does that have to do with anything
- philipallstar 5mo ago
  They could've employed the astronauts to be waiters in Africa.
- whateveracct 5mo ago
  the comment i'm replying to is saying that the moon mission is morally dubious because we haven't solved domestic poverty
  - ailef 5mo ago
    He didn't imply it's morally dubious, I just read it as "people have more pressing matters to direct their attention to than this".
  - Bnjoroge 5mo ago
    that's absolutely not what he said lmao. he said it's far down on our list of priorities, which is true.

raverbashing 6mo ago

Yeah your life must really suck if you only care about immediate hurdles and pains without making room for hope or creativity

trial3 5mo ago
you’re making their point, you just don’t know it yet
jameslars 5mo ago
And your life might be very privileged to so flippantly disregard anyone’s reality that is just that difficult.
- philipallstar 5mo ago
  It's that difficult but they're also commenting on hn.
  - pests 5mo ago
    And? Is that a hurdle or something? You know homeless people are allowed to go on the internet? Smartphones? You'll find other homeless or desolate people here on HN - I won't name anyone out of respect but if you read enough comments here over time you would recognize them.
onraglanroad 5mo ago
Well yes. For too many people, life does suck for that very reason. That's not something to mock people for; it's a problem to apply your mind to and fix.
- JumpCrisscross 5mo ago
  > it's a problem to apply your mind to and fix In kids, sure. In adults, not sure it’s worth the effort on a society wide basis.

bluegatty 5mo ago

nah, it just seems like that on Twitter. We have more prosperity by far than we've ever had in history, this is a time to celebrate. We have our 'ducks in a row' more now than in the 1960's when we went to the moon because of a cold war and nuclear annihilation / escalation. My grandparents were born on farms with no electricity, plumbing, there was no real 'police' no social services, no healthcare, no antibiotics, 10% of children did not make it past age 1. That's in living memory. Despite the insanity on the news, it's mostly drama, and we still have more people coming out of abject poverty than ever. We have 'modern world problems', they are real problems for sure, but they are of a different scale entirely. Frankly, it may never even get that much better as we may be hitting diminishing marginal returns on 'progress' - we now have to figure out how to live 'long lives and stay healthy'. It's a fine time to go to the moon.

izzydata 5mo ago
It is a fine time to be going to the moon, but we could be doing multiple productive things at the same time. It just doesn't surprise me that there are so many people that are not caring so much about this.
- bluegatty 5mo ago
  We are doing multiple productive things. Zillions of them. They are like 50 companies making robots right now that will soon do a lot of work. There are advances in many fields. Headlines are dominated by something else, the 'news' is not a good reflection of reality.
  - westmeal 5mo ago
    What about the workers that will be eventually replaced by said robots? You think they're just going to get free money to exist? Most likely they'll end up in the private prison system or in institutions while the corporations pocket all of the savings. Things are a lot more complicated than they seem I think...
    - 5mo ago

arscan 5mo ago

I don’t think people are spending their time on more pressing issues. I think they are just are hooked on an endless stream of content that is built for addiction and is always within arms reach.

lurking_swe 5mo ago

people have been struggling to afford every day life for decades. So that’s nothing new. Unless only people in the 1st world count as people lol. You’re either emotionally consumed by the human struggle or not, it’s a personality thing - in my opinion. You’re allowed to be poor and a nerd, unless I missed the memo. I’ve met poor and wealthy people that are excited by space.

didgetmaster 5mo ago
Struggling to meet our basic needs is not a recent phenomenon. It has been a part of the human condition for millenia, not just decades. Some people think that if we can just eliminate our 'struggles' by building AI tools to do the hard thinking or robots to perform all our labor; that civilization would become some kind of utopia. I don't believe that. Progress happens when we do hard things.
- WalterBright 5mo ago
  > for millenia Since the first life appeared.

DaedalusII 5mo ago

[flagged]

remarkEon 5mo ago

I see that "whitey on the moon" is back. If it makes you feel better, the amount of money the United States spends on space is a very small percentage compared overall entitlement spending. There is always going to be some level of inequality, so your maxim that we should only spend money on space exploration when those problems are solved just isn't workable. The enormous amount of money the United States spends on "solving" inequality and poverty begs the question of if that's even an effective or efficient allocation of resources in the first place.

Eisenstein 5mo ago
1. Do you think that it is the mission that is misguided, or the methods, in "solving" inequality and poverty? 2. What would you rather the money be spent on?
- remarkEon 5mo ago
  1. Both. 2. I don't understand the question. What money?
  - deleted 5mo ago
    [deleted]
  - Eisenstein 5mo ago
    1. Why would eradicating poverty not be something to strive for? 2. The money you mentioned as basis of the comment I replied to. But if you have a cognitive disability which precludes the ability to follow a conversation's thread, I can summarize the previous state at the start of each response.

someothherguyy 5mo ago

For some numbers: The Artemis program has an estimated cost of 93B since 2012 [0]. As a comparison: "Between 2020 and 2024, $771 billion in Pentagon contracts went to just five firms: Lockheed Martin ($313 billion), RTX (formerly Raytheon, $145 billion), Boeing ($115 billion), General Dynamics ($116 billion), and Northrop Grumman ($81 billion). In comparison, the total diplomacy, development, and humanitarian aid budget, excluding military aid, was $356 billion."[1] 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#cite_note-NASA_OIG_2021-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#cite_note-NASA... 1. https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/costs/economic/us-federal-budget https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/costs/economic/us-federa...

verzali 5mo ago

America has spent more than the equivalent of Artemis blowing up yet another middle eastern country for no good reason. I know which I'd rather get the money.