It took us 10 years to put a man on the moon. Where have we gone 50 years after that? No where, except down. We can argue whether we have gone down culturally since 1969, though I think a pretty good case can be made, but there is no question we have gone down economically, and this is in spite of the fact that we spent billions to go to the moon, while keeping anywhere from 184,000 to 536,000 war fighters on the ground in Vietnam from 1965 to 1969.
It would be disingenuous to point out that in 1969 the national debt was only about $354 billion dollars while today’s national debt is right at $22 trillion dollars. The reality is, that does not reflect inflation. In 2019 dollars, the 1969 national debt works out to just less than 2.5 trillion dollars. That still works out to a 9 times increase in the national debt. But wait, there’s more… and worse.
In 1969 the gross domestic product for the US was just over $1 trillion Dollars. That returns a GDP to Debt Ratio of 2.88:1. That, not the total amount of debt is the true measure of the economy’s health. The 2018 GDP was about $20.5 trillion Dollars, against a national debt of $22 trillion Dollars, or a negative ratio of 1:1.07. Realistically, the country’s net worth (at least the government’s) has shrunk by almost two thirds since 1969. What great advances can we show for that loss of treasure? Were they worth it?
I was six years old when, on a small, black & white TV, I saw Freedom 7 lift off, with Alan Shepard becoming the first American in space. My Grandmother was eleven when the Wright brothers flew at Kittyhawk. Now, my grand children can say their Grandfather was fourteen when the first man walked on the moon. What can my grands talk about that tops that?