Can anyone tell me if there is a feed-the-starving conversion calculator that calculates how many in India (or elsewhere) that could have been fed by the monies invested in the Apollo program? S.E.T.I.? LHC? studies on armpit odor? etc.?
I'm not asking for a lecture on what good came out of the above,* I'm just asking if there's a scientific calculator that converts these numbers?
Can anyone tell me if there is a feed-the-starving conversion calculator that calculates how many in India (or elsewhere) that could have been fed by the monies invested in the Apollo program? S.E.T.I.? LHC? studies on armpit odor? etc.?
I'm not asking for a lecture on what good came out of the above,* I'm just asking if there's a scientific calculator that converts these numbers?
* Which I'm sure would be a short one.
Well, let's do it simple "back of the envelope" style.
According to House, Subcommittee on Manned Space Flight of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, 1974 NASA Authorization, Hearings on H.R. 4567, 93/2, Part 2, p. 1271, the cost of the Apollo program in 1973 was about $25 billion (which I assume was in 1973 dollars). NASA later estimated this to be about $170 billion in 2005-dollars.
So let's go with that as a baseline: $170billion in 2005-dollars
That goes a long way toward the cost of developing fire-fighting and breathing apparatus technology that save countless thousands of lives of firefighters and protects people from inhalation injuries. But wait, sorry, can't include that...it comes from Apollo technology. Strike that.
That $170 billion could have been spent to develop automatic pulse generators which can be implanted, detect the onset of a heart attack and deliver a corrective pulse of electricity to save lives (a mini defibrilator) or programmable pacemakers or programmable implantable medication delivery systems like for insulin which no doubt can save countless thousands of lives! Oh, darn, there again, I forgot: that comes from Apollo technology. Strike those too!
That money could have been spent on developing image analysis enhancement systems which find their use in CAT scans, MRI's, radiography and medical microscopy, again saving thousands and thousands of human lives, but we can't count those either! That's Apollo technology!
Darn that Apollo program!
I think we have to figure that $170 billion could have been better spent to feed everyone on earth for many, many years.
This would actually be a noble use of money and probably could be applied to anything and everything.
Not joking here. We spend countless amounts of money on things which don't do anyone any good. I bought this computer, there's $300 I could have donated to charity. I own a house which could easily have been money that was better used to support the less fortunate in my town here.
I work for a company getting paid much more than I need to live a subsistence living on while others around me have it much harder. I'm one of the few who say please raise my taxes. I'll gladly pay more in taxes to see my fellow people better off. I can do with less.
I see millionaires who definitely could survive on less. And even if they give lots to charity they still have a LOT OF MONEY. Why? What do they need that for?
This gets to the root of what it means to be human, I guess. We either have to agree that our fellow people are more important than our personal "goals" or we have to accept that sometimes we pool our money for things that don't necessarily benefit individuals as much as they benefit our group as a whole.
In reality the most compassionate and truly, honestly "Christian" thing to do would be to live as a band of simple dwellers much as our ancestors did thousands of years ago. We live subsistence living which means we take only as much as we need (and we won't need much if we die earlier) and we take care of our "kin unit". Pure and total "communism" after a fashion must be adhered to as well. From each according to his ability to each according to his need.
I am actually not being facetious here. This is the only way to be totally and perfectly fair and caring for our fellow people. If I have 2 loaves of bread and you have one, then I must give up half a loaf of bread to you.
If I ask you to give a fraction of your holdings to serve some greater "good" (say building a temple to God in our holy city of Jerusalem according to the strict protocols laid out in the Bible) then we are diverting money from a much bigger need of simply feeding people around us.
We cannot spare any excess money on anything until all are cared for at the exact same level.
I honestly don't know where to come down on what is "good" and what is "bad" in this scenario. The only true good would be to ensure the survival of everyone at the same level. No sacrifice from one that isn't born by another equally.
According to one commercial, just 30˘ a day will feed a starving child.
But what is SETI's daily budget allocation?
I don't have all the facts.
The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $3.92 billion per day since September 28, 2007! I wonder how many people that would feed. If you have 7 Billion people in the world divided by 30˘ per person.
Last edited by Elias526; 23rd June 2012 at 10:25 AM.
You know what numbers to plug in, you've given them yourself.
Though you show some inconsistency, in your OP you ask for a sum of money using a generic citizen from India while you in post #3 ask for a running cost using starving children.
Why is it that you're using those specific projects by the way?
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So let's go with that as a baseline: $170billion in 2005-dollars
That goes a long way toward the cost of developing fire-fighting and breathing apparatus technology that save countless thousands of lives of firefighters and protects people from inhalation injuries. But wait, sorry, can't include that...it comes from Apollo technology. Strike that.
Are you telling me, Thaumaturgy, that $170,000,000,000.00, given to NASA, went a long way toward the cost of developing fire-fighting and breathing apparatuses that saved countless lives, etc.?
Okay ... I contend that, if that 170 billion would have been given directly to the firefighters, they could have done the same thing for a lot less.
What say you?
Do you see where I'm going with this?
Given to NASA, and this equipment is a byproduct; but given directly to the source, and the same equipment would be invented with less.
I've got one, Blayz, but I don't know what numbers to plug.
Take India for example.
According to one commercial, just 30˘ a day will feed a starving child.
But what is SETI's daily budget allocation?
I don't have all the facts.
One thing to remember about SETI is it is a non-profit corporation established in 1984. It is a 501(c)(3) corp (California Corporation #1261957) so you have to remember that they are on their own to secure funding through grants which they administer and apply for.
If you have a problem with SETI you have to go to all the individual contributors and stop them from putting their money into SETI. These include not only some government agencies which give out research funds, but also many charitable foundations and even commercial corporations like Sun Microsystems, Agilent, Xilinx, Equallogic and Hewlett Packard.
It would probably be a better world if these corporations decided to give their money to your church for missionary work and feeding the hungry. There are ways to contact these corporations and most of them do have a significant focus on what is called "social capital" (donations and sponsorship of charitable events in their communities).
If you could convince them to give that money to one of your preferred programs you could be doing a pretty good bit for the poor in India. (well, I'm sure you could run the calculations about how much some corporations are providing jobs in India making people marginally less poor there, but clearly if some of their money is going to SETI, more could be going to the poor!)
While we're talking about India I have a proposal for you:
1. Let's move more American jobs to India. They have a great tech infrastructure already and already do a lot of the IT service work we need
2. Let's drop average American salaries and raise Indian salaries to an equal amount (I'm not being facetious here, this is a reasonable demand)
3. Lower the standard of living in the U.S. and raise it in India (again I'm actually not wholly against this idea)
If we actually care about the poor in places like India we have it within grasp to easily and immediately remedy the situation. No joke. We can do it in a couple of years.
I'll give up my house and 3/4 of my salary if you will as long as we know that two Indians will be getting raised up from their poverty to be equal with us.
Are you telling me, Thaumaturgy, that $170,000,000,000.00, given to NASA, went a long way toward the cost of developing fire-fighting and breathing apparatuses that saved countless lives, etc.?
Okay ... I contend that, if that 170 billion would have been given directly to the firefighters, they could have done the same thing for a lot less.
What say you?
Do you see where I'm going with this?
Given to NASA, and this equipment is a byproduct; but given directly to the source, and the same equipment would be invented with less.
I sense you didn't read all of my post. It was quite lengthy I'll admit. But read through it. See how it applies to where you are going with this. You might be surprised.
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