Maybe there's *necessarily* not all that much benefit, *at a national level*. A large, rich country can afford a space program, a poorer or smaller country might put the money to better use elsewhere. Making claims about space benefits *in general* is missing the point: a given country can purchase space services from elsewhere (say weather sat reports or crop surveillance). And tech breakthroughs from space are mostly available on the free market. On the other hand, a country with a large engineering and scientific base may very well benefit from building competency in the space domain. So it really depends and that's also, a bit like building your own military hardware: there's only place for so many national space programs that bring something new to the table rather than being *me too*s. Especially if you want to sell launch services. That's especially true now that rocket tech is evolving so quickly - even established players like Arianespace are being put under pressure, doubly so the Russian program. But it's not like countries are never known to engage in prestige projects - that's why the term "white elephant" was invented after all. You see this time and again in advanced fields like car manufacturing, jet airliners, etc... Those are rarely *obviously* a waste in a well-run country, but they still happen. Last, rather than going all in on your *own space program* - your own spaceports, your own launchers, your own satellites and deep space probes, you may very well reap good benefits from participating in collaborative programs with others.