http://spacerace1957.weebly.com/economic-impact.html

From thespacerace.com....

During the beginning of the Space Race, John F. Kennedy made it very clear that if America is going to achieve the goal of going to the moon then Americas are going to have to sacrifice. He said that if Americans aren't willing to give their blood sweat and tears to achieve this common goal, then it is not a suitable time to go to the moon. Much of the sacrifice that Americans would have to make in order to achieve making it to the moon and other accomplishments in space (satellites to helps forecast weather, etc.) would come through taxes due to the 7-9 billion dollars he was requesting of congress. Almost all of this money would come through taxes put on the tax payers, and in a time when people are already scared to death at the thought of nuclear war, tax increases were horrible. John F. Kennedy would go on to say that if we are to make it to the moon among other things, then NASA's budget would have to be 500x bigger. To spite the giant effect the tax increases had in everyday Americans, there were many upsides to increase in space exploration. Due to the massive amount of work that had to be done to bring a man to the moon within the decade, engineers, scientists, and technicians would be hired by the boatload. This giant decrease in the unemployed would help the economy greatly. This 7 to 9 billion would only be added on top of what hes previously invested in NASA in order to get the Mercury project up and running, making the number taxpayers pay even higher. To spite the giant burden paying for things like space exploration was, congress granted him the money because of the overwhelming amount of Americans that were so captivated by space that they would pay anything to peak their curiosity.