A useful way to spend $1 Trillion

Thinking of common sense uses for the focus of our national might is more the exception than the rule when it comes to government, so let me take a moment (inspired by the latest PJTV segment on 'they stole our future, but cannot break our will' - I recommend you take the 10 minutes to watch) to propose an idea:

Instead of spending $1 Trillion on a useless, archaic, socialist, economically bankrupt, authoritarian health care system, here is an idea that could help stimulate innovation and social advancement:

Permanent Human Mars Colony: Cost = $500Billion
For the price of half of the non "free" health care system (since it does little more than mandate rationed coverage), humanity can build a fully functional permanent settlement on the surface of the red planet. In fact, it has been theorized by Dr. Robert Zubrin and the Mars Society (of which I am a proud long-time member) that the cost of a rudimentary continuous supply mission would be a mere $50 Billion - or 1/20th the cost of the upcoming downfall of our society.

Suppose, for a moment, the innovation necessary to adapt sustained human existence on a planet extremely harmful to our way of life. Just as innovation leaps led us out of the dark ages and eventually into the industrial age, imagine if we find that we are currently in a special dark age when it comes to adaptive living and interstellar travel. What can humanity learn about resource management, about environmental adaptation, about species survival, advanced communication, or even advanced and efficient space travel and transport... the possibilities are endless...

The social authoritariat may have stolen the future of our fathers and grandfathers, but our will is unbroken, and our time to take hold of the future is at hand.

The year is now 2010. Where will you be standing in 10 years, 20 years, 50 years? And where will human perseverance, ingenuity, and innovation lead us in that time? Live to inspire, and you will find yourself in awe at the ability of your fellow man...

The Moon Will Never Look the Same

The question of lunar colonization has long been debated in scientific (and sci-fi) circles for decades, and has always rested on one conclusion - man cannot sustain life on the moon without water. World governments have spent billions of dollars trying to determine if there can exist some slight amount of water... in polar craters, in the regolith. Even the Apollo missions returned lunar rocks with the intent of searching for embedded water - the results were inconclusive.

The world has changed today... and the moon will never again look the same.

When early civilizations looked to the moon, they saw vast oceans on a nearby celestial body... and named them rightly.

It turns out that the entire surface of the moon contains, in some small amount, WATER. There may be more water hidden in the shadows of the polar craters, but the new discovery reveals, at least in some small amounts, that water exists on the entire surface of the moon.

The moon remains drier than any desert on Earth, but the water is said to exist on the moon in very small quantities. One ton of the top layer of the lunar surface would hold about 32 ounces of water, researchers said.

Water, as we all know, is the sustaining force for life as we know it. To consider a lunar colony, permanent settlement of the moon, one would have to plan a supply of water. With the discovery of any amount of water on the lunar surface our ability to simplify a self sustaining colony has just exponentially increased.

The simplest form of colonization considers "In-Situ" resources a necessary - that is, the ability to collect your resources for survival at your destination. To not have to bring water, even the short distance to the moon, could save us decades of slow growth due to required transportation.
I am a Mars Colony advocate, but taking advantage of lunar resources is a required step if human kind should ever decide to fight for a prolonged existence in the cosmos.

The next time you look up at the moon, think about a future where the half moon will play host to a night time display of distant city lights... Humans, en masse, living on other worlds. That reality just got a little closer today.