This video asks some important questions about the decline of space exploration in our age of austerity. It features a mash-up of statements by one of my favorite speakers, the astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

I am left wondering what good can come of our nation if we can’t figure out how to strategically spend money on things that matter. War seems to be the only thing that Americans can temporarily agree on. What if we just redirected our spending elsewhere? What if the 148th fighter wing in Duluth, always on the chopping block when defense cuts are discussed, was a scientific station instead? What would that mean to the local economy and education system? I imagine the impact would be extraordinary.

Video by Scrunchthethird, H/T Andrew Sullivan