"Dre" wrote in message ...
"Henry Spencer" wrote in message
...
"Let those who complain that too much money is being spent on abstract
knowledge while people are starving remember this: The alternative to
knowledge is savagery. Their very existence as stowaways on the voyage
of civilization is owing to advances in science which permit some to
live without doing their share of the work. Let them be tolerant, then,
lest by encumbering the useful ones they destroy the thing which keeps
them alive." -- George Ellery Hale

Now what do you think that mean Henry, since it can be looked upon it
different lights? As an aeronautical engineering student, I am very much for
space exploration and opening doors for mankind, but I am also doing my bit
and helping today's "starving people", since many of them are in their
predicament because their inherent wealth has been taken and now funds such
missions.

What it means is simple. Ask yourself, how many people
are starving *to death* in the US right now? Very, very
few. How many people are really starving to the point
of serious medical effects due to malnurishment? Very,
very few. Ply the streets my friend, look at the
poor and the indigent. Are they well and truly
starving? Are they hollow cheeked? Do their bones
show clearly under their skin because they have no
fat and no muscle? You will find that, in fact, they
are not truly starving but merely, perhaps, on
occasion hungry, if that. Indeed, it is not unusual
to find a poor or homeless individual who is fat.

Why is this so? Why are there so few deaths due to
malnurishment in the western world (as there had been
in abundance *everywhere* throughout human history)?
Is it because of some greater compasion for the
needy? No. It is due primarily to greed, and
research, and invention. All those "wasteful"
enterprises which the "truly compasionate" would
have us abandon. It is due to things like the one
time rich man's toy, the automobile. It is due to
things like the frivolous, blue sky interest in
the genetics of species. It is due to the greed
of farmers and agribusinesses wanting to make
higher profits. That's how we ended up with
tractors and refrigeration and pesticides and
high-yield crops and efficient irrigation and all
those upteen kajillion things that add up to cheap
food and an effective end to starvation.

Here's another excercise for you, go to a grocery
store, price a 25 lb. bag of flour or rice. Ask
how in the world anyone, even the homeless, could
really be "starving" in today's world. But then
again, you already learned in your previous
excercise that they aren't.