How is this for a moral dilemma? (See the comic below.) Oddly enough, I was thinking along these lines just yesterday when I read a story about the new black hole discovered which mentioned how many millions (hundreds of millions?) were spent to bring us this discovery. Is that really the best use of our money? Of course these decisions are rarely down to a cost/benefit analysis, if so we would not have the aggressive medical research that has led to so many improvements in living, it is far cheaper to let people die. That is one aspect of the healthcare debate that rarely comes up: something like 80% of healthcare expenses occur in the last month of life. If we want to save money we should simply stop trying to live so darn long. So it is never a simple ledger sheet decision. I have no penetrating or insightful observations here, just pointing out that we often make decisions, even moral ones, for very visceral and personal reasons (like wanting to live or learning cool new stuff).
I should add that my father was a NASA engineer for most of his career and anyone who has read this blog knows that I like tech, but… Such things always remind me of the lyrics from Adam Again’s “Inner City Blues.” The song begins,
Rockets and moonshots
Spend it on the have-nots
Money, we make it
Before we see it, you take itMake me want to holler
The way they do my life
Make me want to holler
The way they do my life
This ain’t livin’Inflation and no chance
To increase my finance
Bills pile up sky high
Send that boy off to dieMake me want to holler
Throw up both my hands
Make me want to holler
Throw up both my hands
You can listen to it here. And the comic from Too Much Coffee Man that started this train of thought today:
2 thoughts on “Moral Dilemma”
This post made me think of the cut to our space program. I feel very sad about that. I know we need to save money, but most Americans could find plenty of budget cuts if they were given the chance. Some things are worth the investment.
This also made me think of the soldier I heard about the other day who threw himself on a bomb so that two other lives could be saved. Who is to determine whether his life, or their’s was more valuable. In this case, he determined their’s was.