The government put a man on the moon. In fact, it put a bunch of guys up there, and brought them all back in one piece. Only ones to ever do so.
Yes, they did. In the typical government fashion (by throwing massive amounts of money and resources at the project in a cost-no-object fashion), and killing the crew of Apollo 1 in the process. It cost over $120 billion in 2009 dollars. And then we walked away from it all.
Also, you have to look at things over time. Like most things the government does, they did great at the start, then the organization became more concerned with its own bureaucratic survival than the mission of the organization. The Shuttle tries to be all things to all people, and ended up fulfilling few of its promises, costing several times more than expected, for less capability.
Now we have a space station we have to depend on the Russians to support.
We've never been invaded. Closest we've come is when a pack of lawless Arabs blew up a couple buildings. More folks got killed in traffic accidents that month.
Except the war of 1812, Pearl Harbor, and the invasion of the Aleutians. Plus the loss of the US territories of the Philippines, the Marianas Islands, and many other Pacific possessions.
Again, look at how things go over time. How's the "War on Terror" going? Or is that the "War on Extremism"? Or now the "plans to deal with human-caused disasters", since we can't use the words terrorist or terrorism, or name the people who are our enemies?
The military is a system that is inherently governmental, but will you honestly say that if functions well? How's the F22 production working out? How's the F35, that now has a fundamental flaw with tailhook placement of a plane that was supposed to carrier based, that no one noticed over the last six years, and they have no idea how to fix it? In the meantime, Congress is forcing the production of a second engine supplier that no one in DoD wants.
Or the B2, that literally costs more than its weight in gold? Or the A22 that was cancelled after spending billions of dollars without even a functioning prototype?
Our Federal aviation system is one of if not the safest in the world.
Despite the FAA's best efforts to kill GA. Do you really want to hold up the FAA as a model of governmental efficiency?
Our research institutes haven't cured cancer, but they made a vaccine for one kind and turned a bunch of others from death sentences to manageable diseases. Beat back the threat of AIDS as well, the biggest emerging health threat in more than one country. Beat small pox, polio, cholera, malaria and a host of other diseases that killed tens of thousands of Americans every year.
Most of the work on smallpox was done by non-federal labs. The US government had nothing to do with developing the smallpox vaccine. Dr. Jenner did that on his own nearly 100 years earlier.
Name one new vaccine that came from a federal lab, as opposed to pharmaceutical companies who have a vested interest on solving the problem, where government funded labs have a vested interest in prolonging the problem.
In the meantime, the government has banned the most effective pesticides, and malaria (once almost eliminated) came roaring back. The EPA's ban on DDT (followed by pressure on third world governments to eliminate its use under threat of losing funding and support) has killed over 100 million people worldwide, due to the resurgence of the nearly eliminated malaria.
Also, look at the role of the Surgeon General, Rupert Blue, in the spread of the 1918 Flu pandemic. The federal Public Health Service did everything they could to prevent "panic" by suppressing information, refused to support antiseptic treatment and quarantine, and probably caused the death of more Americans that the Germans did in World War 1.
I could easily go on, but I do have other things to do. I just can't stand this sort of hyperbole. The surest way to loose everything to forget everything we have.
Agreed. We, as a society, have forgotten that actions and choices have consequences. In the name of "the environment" we eliminated pesticides that eliminated the threat of contagious disease, now they are returning. Malaria, cholera, West Nile, bedbugs, all did not exist in the past generation. Now they are coming back because we lack the will to act against them.
In the name of "freedom of conscience", allow people not to vaccinate their kids, and measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, and others are roaring back into the child population (and killing them).
We won't even talk about Tuberculosis, which is steadily advancing through the population.
The same is true in energy, transportation, and many many other areas. I could easily go on, but I don't have time.
As you say, the surest way to lose everything is to forget what we have (and fail to maintain the incredible advances we have made).
Politicians...always think they're better than the rest of us. His only recourse lies in getting 50 of his senatorial colleagues and 218 in the House to change the laws which require this.
