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A comment on Hazard pay in focus as essential workers earn less than the jobless. Parent comment

Re:Hazard pay in focus as essential workers earn less than t... by freehunter on Thursday July 02, 2020 @06:21PM (#23718792)
Like others have said, I think you're missing the point. In the past we've done something specifically because it was hard (going to the moon) but it would be a controversial statement to say it was done accidentally or for a terrible reason. For example, the state of computer science wouldn't be nearly where it is if it wasn't for going to the moon specifically because it was hard.
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Re:Hazard pay in focus as essential workers earn less than t... by thaumasiotes on Thursday July 02, 2020 @06:51PM (#23719015)
> In the past we've done something specifically because it was hard (going to the moon) but it would be a controversial statement to say it was done accidentally or for a terrible reason.

I don't think it would be especially controversial to say it was done for a terrible reason. We didn't do that specifically because it was hard; those are just words from JFK's speech. We did that because the Soviet Union had beaten us to putting a man (and a satellite) in orbit, and we thought it was crucially important to beat them to something related.

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Re:Hazard pay in focus as essential workers earn less than t... by freehunter on Thursday July 02, 2020 @07:06PM (#23719098)
And in the resulting flurry of science that came from JFK's speech, we got many amazing and good things. The easy thing to do is say "space doesn't matter" like many countries have chosen to do. We did it even knowing it was hard, because the benefits outweighed the difficulty.

What is "terrible" about advancing science and putting humans in space?

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Re:Hazard pay in focus as essential workers earn less than t... by thaumasiotes on Thursday July 02, 2020 @07:22PM (#23719208)
> What is "terrible" about advancing science and putting humans in space?

Neither of those was a reason for the project.

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Re:Hazard pay in focus as essential workers earn less than t... by freehunter on Thursday July 02, 2020 @07:25PM (#23719230)
The real reason were not terrible either, neither were they accidental.
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Re:Hazard pay in focus as essential workers earn less than t... by thaumasiotes on Thursday July 02, 2020 @07:29PM (#23719261)
Yes, the real reason was in fact terrible. Doing something because you feel pressured to win a race against another country is a really bad reason to do that thing.
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