Re: Let's start with the basics and then work forward from there.
Andy 103, A good video to look up is Al Bartlett's "Arithmetic, Population and Energy" for a look into how population growth hasn't been a good thing. You could also read Malthus.
Millions of people alive today that don't get enough to eat, drink and proper shelter isn't going to be solved with money. In some parts of the world, people have lots of kids because they know that many of them won't live past childhood and the ones that do are the retirement plan of their parents to have somebody to look after them when they get too old to look after themselves. There is also the problem of certain cultures that put an emphasis on large families. There is lack of reproductive knowledge and education of women which is shown to lead to small family sizes through planning. The one that bugs me the most is religious edicts that demonize reproductive education and prohibit contraception.
I see a downside of going back to the moon is that it will be safer to work on vaccines and therapies for viruses that are highly dangerous to work with on Earth. Stuff like Ebola, Marbug, SHF. A moon lab isolated so it can be "burned down" in the event of a mishap would make working on these dangerous organisms much safer. This would mean that more people would survive this very infectious diseases. You have to realize that disease is often nature's way of controlling a population that is too successful and isn't being kept down through predation.
Some problems can't be fixed by the simple application of money. Los Angeles has a big homeless problem and passed new taxes to provide funds to build low cost housing and shelters for people that find themselves living rough. So far they've been pissing the money away on studies, permits, city fees, consultants, etc. What they've come up with are living units costing around $600,000ea. The level of stupidity is so high that it's hard to see how it could reach such heights. A few hours from Los Angeles, homes can be purchased for around $200,000. Decent homes with lots of space, not dinky little "living units".
Stopping all science is never going to solve societies problems. Enabling people to live a worthless life by giving them food, shelter, health care, mobile, utilities, transportation and entertainment so they can get even more by popping out another child year after year instead of funding science doesn't move humanity forward. Governments are encouraging children to be born out of wedlock as a single mother can get subsides that a couple could not. It makes more sense for people to not make the commitment of marriage from a financial standpoint. They just put "unknown" for father on the birth certificate so the father won't be trussed up in court and made to pay for his offspring. The State would have to spend huge sums of money to prove paternity if they suspect that the woman's current "partner" is the father of her child(ren).
While "literally" millions of people aren't having they basic needs met, they aren't spending their nights contemplating their navels. They seem to be up to something. Perhaps that's the problem and not the program to put a permanent base on the moon.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
