A recent story on 60 Minutes covered the plight of former space shuttle employees in Breverd County, Florida, home of the Kennedy Space Center. In short, the end of the shuttle program has led to severe unemployment and the subsequent closing of many local businesses.
The people interviewed are angry and feel betrayed because the government led them to believe a replacement space program, called Constellation, would allow them to keep jobs. The economy and budget cuts kept that from happening.
There is one thing these folks are having trouble understanding - Americans like me don't care about their feelings!
Are you kidding me? The 7,000 (yes, 7,000) people employed by NASA's shuttle program, and the businesses they patronized, have sucked at the taxpayers' teat for the better part of three decades. They made good wages with fantastic federal benefits. And yes, I'm sure most of them were good civil servants.
Unfortunately, it didn't occur to those employees, nor to the businesses around them, that Uncle Sam might not always need them. How did they not see this coming? Everyone has known for years that the shuttle program was going to be shut down, and they made no contingency plans?
Yes I know, they were counting on the Constellation program. Well, let me introduce you to a million other people who also lost their private employment jobs when the economy went south in 2008. I don't see them sitting around hoping for the government to create other jobs in their county. (Check that, thousands of them are sitting around collecting benefits from me.)
Just because these folks were denial doesn't mean anyone should feel sorry for them. They had plenty of time to learn another trade, or revamp their business. And if they didn't then, they do now.
I for one am glad to see that the flow of dollars from my pocket to theirs has stopped, during a time when the U.S. is so far in debt that it has rightfully contracted its space exploration program.
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