Each year the United States of America allocates billions of dollars to spend on various research. Healthcare, education and environment reach the top of that list, but topics such as UFOs and other space phenomena are additionally granted funds. To most Americans, UFOs, BigFoot and the chupacabra all fall under the same category of folklore, and have yet to be taken seriously by the U.S. government for prominent research. In the 2020 Netflix documentary, the Phenomenon, viewers are guided by Peter Coyote through an extensive review of America’s current UFO research and the way in which the government has attempted to suppress it. To put myself in the shoes of a United States senator, I would not approve a billion dollars toward UFO research. While certainly interesting, the United States has far too many issues on Earth to begin new ventures in space. If something were to be discovered in the billion dollars allocated it would then turn into a multi-billion dollar venture. America currently faces thousands of underfunded schools, as well as, millions of Americans who struggle to put food on the table. While these are massive issues that will certainly require more than a billion dollars, I believe that every dollar should be spent building up the youth in the nations weakest cities. Space Exploration is known to be hazardous both to its astronauts and the environment and in exploring such new territory there is no guarantee that it will be successful or safe.
Many people have very different theories as to what these unidentified flying objects are. To some they are sent out by the government and to others they are aliens. This broadness proves how unfeasible one billion dollars is for such research. The unknowns in this experiment are far greater than what we do know which makes it difficult to put the funds in a specific direction heightening the chances of an unsuccessful mission and a billion dollars. Researchers have grown weary as space exploration pertaining to UFOs has been occurring over the past sixty years and never come to any conclusive results. Andrew Siemion, director of Berkeley SETI research center said, “Objective description of any phenomena should be backed up by compelling evidence, and despite many decades of reports of various UFO and abduction phenomena, we don’t have such evidence. Moreover, astronomers spend their lives looking at the sky with a wide variety of telescopes and techniques, and we have never snapped a picture of [an unexplained] spaceship” (National Geographic). This supports my prior claim that there is not substantial enough research for America to start such new research when we are currently trillions in debt and have much higher priorities for our government funds.
To put it in perspective, the average cost of a NASA space exploration is four hundred and fifty million dollars, leaving room for about two explorations if NASA decided to actively go after a UFO. In comparison, one million dollars – a fraction of the one billion dollars, is enough to resupply an entire school with new electronics, higher quality lunch meals or updates to school property. Education is something that especially divides our nation as most of the underfunded schools and communities are made up of America’s minority population. With adequate funding, America already knows exactly where to place the funds to see success in our schools and communities and this cannot be said for UFO research.
By advancing our school systems we are able to see positive effects across our entire nation. Creating a strong middle class is essential to the American economic plan and wealth often derives from education. In the same fashion that a team is only as strong as its weakest link, America is only as strong as its middle class which is reliant on diminishing the lower class. When students are actively engaged in their schools and communities their lifetime success rates skyrocket. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan pleaded with communities to place their funds in the appropriate places because, “low-income students need extra support and resources to succeed” (U.S. Dept. of Education). To bring national equality those in lower income areas do not need the same amount of funds as their wealthier peers, but more funds to lessen their constantly growing gap. This is in the best interest of all Americans even those who are not in the lower class. Communities will strengthen and this will help those who are even currently not in school (such as the lower-income parents of those children).
For these reasons I do not find it appropriate to allocate such funds to research that is not essential to our country. It is wanted and understood that as a nation we constantly want as much world and space knowledge as possible, but in America’s very polar political and socio economic climate it is not feasible to place funds on any research beyond our national means. By using our funds to grow America’s middle class through adolescent education we will begin to see increased national wealth which will in turn allow research on topics such as UFOs to not take away from our communities, but instead add to the nation. It is certainly interesting, but with more pressing issues UFO research should remain low on the national agenda.
Works Cited
Clark, P. (2017, December 20). What We’ve Learned From 60 Years of U.S.-Funded UFO Probes. Retrieved November 23, 2020, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/12/pentagon-ufos-search-extraterrestrial-intelligence-life-space-science/
More Than 40% of Low-Income Schools Don’t Get a Fair Share of State and Local Funds, Department of Education Research Finds. (2011, November 30). Retrieved November 23, 2020, from https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/more-40-low-income-schools-dont-get-fair-share-state-and-local-funds-department-
The Phenomenon
I don’t think anyone disagrees that it is more important to focus on the concrete issues facing us in America and on Earth itself before focusing on outer space research – but we still are focused on that! Much more of our budget goes to things like education and healthcare than to, say, UFO research. However, I don’t think it’s fair to say that space exploration as a whole should be scrapped. For the scientists who make that their life’s mission, and for all the students who aspire to be astronomers, or work at NASA, etc, that’s REALLY cool. Just yesterday, Perseverance landed on Mars, which – yeah, maybe isn’t as crucial as improving American education. But it’s always important to never stifle the creative and inquisitive spirit of science; otherwise, what are we working towards? We are still primarily focused on fixing societal issues at home, but scientific research like this is very interesting and inspiring for a lot of people, and isn’t that important too? As a country, we also want to be able to say – “hey look, we’re exploring Mars. How cool is that?!”
National funds allocation has always been a controversial topic, maybe even more so now. I definitely agree that there needs to be a redistribution of government funding, and I agree that domestic issues should be at the top of the hierarchy. I also firmly believe that education is one of the most important things in a person’s life. It’s not just about learning math and history, but learning how to learn, think for yourself, understand, teach others, speak your mind and more. These skills are so important, and there is a major disparity in access to solid education. If defunding UFO research is the only way to boost education, then so be it. This was a very thought provoking post! 🙂