We Ain't Goin' Nowhere

Jeff Bezos & Richard Branson have thrown 10 or 12 billion dollars (less than 2% of their wealth) at their hobby of "space travel".

That's like most folks spending a hundred bucks for 2 or 3 rounds of golf every month.

I guess dumping money into Horse Hockey and The Americas Cup just ain't what it used to be.

I'm not going to shit on the accomplishment - honest. I just think they could do a few things with that money that would be of much greater benefit.

1. Provide Medicaid for 3 million people

The number of uninsured Americans has plummeted since the Affordable Care Act, with 25 million more non-elderly Americans insured than before(elderly Americans are eligible for Medicare). But, 22 million Americans remained uninsured at the end of 2016.

At the program’s current costs, $10 billion could provide Medicaid – cost-effective, quality insurance – for 3 million Americans. That’s like giving free, quality health insurance to the entire state of Iowa.

2. More than quadruple federal spending on energy efficiency and renewable energy

Climate change is real, and it’s here. It’s depressing that the United States budget for energy efficiency and renewable energy is a paltry $2 billion.

3. Give the Environmental Protection Agency a 120% Raise

Continuing on the environmental theme, this federal defender for clean water, clean air, protection of endangered species, safe disposal of toxic waste, land conservation and even food quality and safety has been under assault by the current administration. A $10 billion raise would be enough to increase its budget by 120%, from $8.2 billion to $18.2 billion.

4. Increase federal aid to public K-12 schools by 60%

An additional $10 billion would be a 60% increase to this aid, and could make a big difference to our schools. U.S. schools are old, and many are desperately in need of updates, like expansion to accommodate growing enrollment, and energy retrofits to control spiking energy costs. The $10 billion spike wouldn’t be enough to solve the problems, but in a world where citizens launch GoFundMe campaigns to raise $75,000 for school heaters, it would be a good start.

5. Fund the National Endowment for the Arts for another 60 years

Since its founding in 1965, the NEA has spent just $5 billion in all, supporting more than 145,000 grants to artists, writers, and performers. NEA support helped create the Vietnam veterans memorial in Washington, DC; the Sundance Film Festival; and is currently partnering with the Department of Defense to implement creative arts healing programs for veterans with traumatic brain injury.

Want people to have a better overall attitude about things? Want more civility in our civil society? Try teaching folks about The Humanities - it's right there in the name, dummy.

6. Double heating assistance for low-income households

$10 billion for The Low Income Home Energy Assistance is a near-tripling  for a program that provides support to low-income households to help them afford heating and cooling costs.

With a $10 billion increase, LIHEAP could help 15 million families afford heat, and 3 million families afford cooling.

7. Resettle 11 times more refugees than we did in 2018

The U.S. helps to resettle anywhere from about 22,000 to about 85,000 refugees in our cities and towns. The cost of resettlement for those refugees averages under $3 billion.

Increasing the budget for refugee resettlement by $10 billion could allow the U.S. to accept 15-20 times more refugees - more than ½ a million desperate people, and half of those are kids.

8. Double (or triple) funding for substance use and mental health

With the United States facing a disturbing decline in life expectancy, experts have blamed both an opioid epidemic and a historically high suicide rate. Substance abuse and mental health should be near the top of the list for increased funding.

And yet the current budget for the main federal agency that handles both substance abuse and mental health, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), receives less than $5 billion in federal funds.

And BTW, there's no place else to go. Yeah, OK, there's another planet or two out there somewhere that could be less than totally hostile to human life, and we're never going to know for sure if we don't go look for them.

But we're finding those planets without ever having to leave this one. And like grandma said - "You gotta show me you can take care of the one you've got before you ask for another'n."

And the kicker? If we could figure out how to go 100 times faster than people have ever traveled before (which is 10 times faster than is believed to be survivable for humans), it'll take us about 6 million years to get to the nearest "possibly habitable" planet.

6. million. YEARS.

I guess we better get that whole Space Warp thing goin'.