From the opening paragraphs of a new article on what NASA is wasting your taxpayer dollars on these days, under the Obama administration’s oversight:

Few think Western civilization is on the brink of collapse—but it’s also doubtful the Romans and Mesopotamians saw their own demise coming either.

If we’re to avoid their fate, we’ll need policies to reduce economic inequality and preserve natural resources, according to a NASA-funded study that looked at the collapses of previous societies.

“Two important features seem to appear across societies that have collapsed,” reads the study. “The stretching of resources due to the strain placed on the ecological carrying capacity and the economic stratification of society into Elites and Masses.”
 
In unequal societies, researchers said, “collapse is difficult to avoid…. Elites grow and consume too much, resulting in a famine among Commoners that eventually causes the collapse of society.”

[snip]

The study was sponsored by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and headed by the National Science Foundation’s Safa Motesharrei.

The obvious question, it seems to me, is why the hell is the National Aeronautics & Space Administration doing this?  This seems so far afield from what they ought to be engaged in that I am beginning to suspect that Lois Lerner has found a new home.

The entire piece can be seen HERE.