TIL for every $1 spent on NASA sees $7 to $14 added to the economy, meaning that the $17.6 billion a year invested in NASA results in an economic boost worth as much as $246.4 billion annually.

First of all, NASA isn't the "private sector." Second, the entire premise of your comment is that every time a dollar changes hands it magically multiplies itself. I cannot fathom why you think this would be true. If I give you $5. And you give your friend $5.....it's still $5.

Also, thanks to corporate greed and Republican tax cuts in the US, a chunk of every dollar that "goes into the private sector" actually gets removed from the economy. A dollar stockpiled is a dollar removed....if it's not being spent, it's not part of the economy. This can be observed in numerous nations with royal families worth hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars, while the entire country lives in squalor. It's also the primary reason why wealth inequality is the highest it's been in 50 years. Trickle down Does. Not. Work.

The reason why a NASA investment returns a multiple is because the majority of technological breakthroughs and advancements come from the scientific community. When new and emerging technologies are discovered, this creates the opportunity for new jobs to be created around manufacturing/improving/selling this product to the masses, and more specifically, other countries, which now brings dollars to the US from around the globe.

Obviously I'm not covering every detail and nuance, but I think this is enough.

/r/todayilearned Thread Parent Link - 21stcentech.com