No Sign of Intelligent Life!

I've been trying to wrap my head around the astronomical, pardon the pun, cost of space exploration. Unless we plan to colonize, I've also been trying to figure out why. I would think private individuals with egos as large as their pocketbooks would be glad to step up and support a space program. Just the fact that they could put their name and face on it would usually be enough for some. It doesn't take a rocket scientist, pardon the pun, to figure out a more prudent way to spend approximately 17 billion dollars a year. I know, I know, "it's the final frontier", my apologies Captain Kirk. Well, we don't send tax dollars for people to climb mountains, or do we? That's not the point. At some point I'd like the government to tell me exactly what my return on investment from all this spending is. I can't recall any of the radical environmentalists, hello Al Gore, screeching about rocket fuel burning through numerous layers of our atmosphere. I'm sure they generate some sort of gases that someone would take offense to. How many carbon offsets does the government have to purchase every time we launch something into space? That includes private companies launching satellites as well. There really is a lot of crap up there! Maybe I'm naive, but I just don't see the value. I'd have to believe that anyone landing in Washington D.C. nowadays would come to only one conclusion: Nope, no sign of intelligent life here!