Richard, Utah benefits greatly from government funding. I doubt a science would progress much without it, scientist I know are not motivated by profit. The most valuable doctors I know are the least paid. Capital for space innovations comes form government spending in concert with free market. Space exploration is not covered by constitution, I would not put its funding up to vote. I say to Kevin Poe, right on brother. Erik --- retenney@yahoo.com wrote: From: Richard Tenney <retenney@yahoo.com> To: Utah-Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] OT: Government and science funding Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:30:10 -0800 (PST) It seems pretty clear to me that without government support (National Science Foundation (NSF) grants are funded to a large extent by taxes, are they not?), our hobby would be without ANY of the large observatories, since the Market (aside from amateurs wanting to look and take pretty pictures) doesn't have any commercial incentive to fund astronomical or cosmological research. Am I wrong? Likewise, would colleges even offer degrees in Astronomy if government funding of science education were to go away? _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com