[Maru]

I would support them... govt supports a lot of supposedly "useless" things actually... like historical buildings, DC tourist industry, national parks, museums, the Public Broadcasting Network... I'm sure there's a lot more horrible govt waste I can find in that that dumpster fire...

At least your family, you can ask them to do diplomatic/political work on your country's behalf. It also generates additional income for your country in the way of tourism and keeps your newspapers happy, creates jobs, and employs a lot of people actually... and it keeps people actively interested in your history and keeps your country relevant in affairs. Since these "useless" things often are help you to promote your country, bolster the moral of your countrymen.... are actually must haves in a first world country as a "resume" to your relevance of your culture and deep wealth of collective knowledge and history.

There are a lot of things that govt often supports that can be deemed a giant money pits... but their actual value isn't in the income they generate, but rather are job generators (so helps the economy), enables the staff to conduct research/keep statistics if it's a geological site for example and shows the country is not only interested in those fields, but has put money into them...

Another example, one that is not as obvious.. in Baltimore, my husband used to work at a historical building (one of the few that didn't burn down)... anyway, it had a bank in it. They didn't generate much in the way of loans or customers in having it in that location... peddlers lived on that block and so they were harassed walking in and out, so a lot of customers didn't like going there either... in fact, it was a money pit all the way around. What made it "profitable", was that by having a certain amount of locations in "low income" or "urban areas", they were able to qualify for a major kickback from the govt... so actually, keeping it open did make them a lot of money... but you could say it was a money pit as far as the govt was concerned. My husband used to take people upstairs, including kids on a field trip... he would show them the old vault (like the classic ones with the heavy round doors, etc)... so he worked on the side as a museum worker, but doubled as a security guard... was kind of ironic in retrospect ("... and here's the vault where all the money goes!"), but he took the initiative, the mgrs loved it and the kids and tourists learned more about the history of that time period.... it had a big dome at the top, marble pillars and a very high ceiling, gold-plated. The "conference" room was the employee lounge, and the door was kind of hidden... felt like a mob boss sitting at the end of this old expensive very heavy table eating my donuts while surrounded by period elaborate wood paneled walls and guilded age era-stuff all over the place... I'm sure they got some sort of kickback for keeping that property maintained... but it was way over the top for a simple bank.