Spending Money on Basic Needs on Earth

　　While many governments like to spend large sums of money on space exploration, this actually does little to benefit the citizens of those countries. Governments instead should focus on spending the majority of their funds on the basic needs of the citizens of their countries. One of the most basic needs for people is health care. Unfortunately, most governments have not ensured that their citizens have access to quality health care. Lf governments were to spend more money on even the most basic health care, the quality of life for their citizens would increase dramatically. The countries themselves would benefit from investing in health care because their citizens would be healthier and live longer lives, which would then increase the overall productivity of the workers in those countries. Furthermore, in advanced countries such as the United States, where health care costs are a major cause of bankruptcy, governments could help relieve citizens of the burden of expensive health care. By spending more money on health care than on space programs, governments could create a healthier, wealthier, and more productive workforce.

　　In addition, many countries are spending large amounts of money on their space programs but are not getting a good return on their investments. There are very few people involved in space programs, yet, in some countries, they receive an incredibly high amount of money due to the expensive nature of sending rockets, satellites, and men into space. One example of this is the International Space Station. Several countries have contributed billions of dollars to the construction and maintenance of the space station. However, I cannot recall ever reading or hearing about any scientific discoveries made on the space station. Nor have I heard of any experiments being conducted there. It seems that astronauts often visit the space station, but they do not appear to be doing anything practical or useful to the large majority of the world’s population. Instead, the International Space Station is just wasting billions and billions of taxpayers’ dollars to increase the prestige of the nations associated with it. That money could be spent much more wisely and better back here on Earth.

　　In conclusion, I believe that governments should stop spending so much money on their space programs and should instead focus on investing their valuable financial resources here on Earth. Those funds could be better spent on health care and making the population healthier. In addition, since the space program is not producing any obvious benefits, the money spent on it could and should be spent on Earth, not in outer space.