False dichotomy, you can have both. You're right, healthcare in the US needs to be free at the point of use. But there are worse things that we 'waste' money on, like alcohol, junk food, toys, incredibly inefficient cruise ships, traffic wardens, fast fashion, credit card interest, dog grooming, nuclear weapons, bureaucratic inefficiency, unused subscriptions, and bad investment.
+ Spending money on science inspires new generations to discover new things, there was a huge boost before and after the first visit to the moon: MRI machines, pacemakers, advanced water purification, robotic surgery, and telemedicine.
+ There are so many risks to life on Earth that we need a Plan B. We need to become interplanetary to ensure our survival.
"Artemis is a waste of money and could be better spent elsewhere"
You're right, there are other priorities right now that are important.
However:
The Apollo programme led to several inventions: MRI machines, pacemakers, advanced water purification, robotic surgery, and telemedicine.
There are numerous threats to life on Earth:
- climate change and ecological collapse (especially methane trapped in ice)
- pathogens (natural, bioengineered, and waiting in permafrost)
- nuclear war (including accidental near-misses)
- antibiotic resistance and bacteriophage experiments
- ocean anoxia and runaway acidification
- global fertility collapse (from microplastics and PFAs)
- unaligned AI if given the controls
- runaway synthetic biology / gene drives (e.g. edited mosquitos)
- solar storms
- supervolcanoes
- asteroids
- grey goo nanotechnology
- nearby supernova
- oort cloud disruption
- hostile aliens
- gamma ray bursts
- rogue planets and black holes
- expansion of the sun
- vacuum decay
- strange matter
