If by "ridiculous" you mean "insightful". :) Seriously, the race to the moon was useless for accomplishing any of the things that we space nuts (though I wasn't born yet; no one has been to the moon in my lifetime) dreamed. It was a huge diversion from actual economic growth into pyramid building.

If done for a profit, going to the moon would be economic growth, but as it was, it was essentially a program to build a legacy for Kennedy and Johnson, at which it was immensely successful! After all, people associate those two with the space program more than with the Vietnam War, now, as far as I can tell.