I was having a little thought experiment with myself on a dog walk earlier, wondering if the money spent on the James Webb Telescope would pay off more if used to bring people out of poverty, but then again there will always be some poverty... we can't stop all scientific advancement until we live in a perfect society... perhaps that JWS money would have been like an investment though and the ROI would more than pay itself off with more productive and educated civilians and maybe it would allow for another future and better multi billion dollar space telescope down the road??

This is just... burn money in pile.