I disagree with you. I believe NASA and space exploration represents money well spent.
I am glad that you have an interest in it. For me, I just can't bring myself to get excited about something that just does not provide anything. I mean we get excited about this and nothing comes of it. When I was in grade school (80's) they promised Americans that we would be living in space in our life time....Don't see that happening. Don't you think that NASA lied about that so they could continue this cash cow.
That's a common argument used by people who defend their favorite government program and its largess. Just use that for any one of the thousands of Government programs, "for our own good" and you start to see where the problem lies.