Since I’m a snowboarder, I will compare this to the evolution of the sport. It used to be that a solid, high, 900 would win a half pipe competition. Andy finch was a good example of that. Now you need double corked 1080’s at a bare minimum. Doing it as a hobby I am able to do a 9, which would have won me medals at some point. So there was a slack there, that isn’t now, which means that the gold medalist today needs to work harder, much, much harder.
When the bar is under what is possible, there is A LOT of slack, where something like a single income family can survive. Raise the bar (awesome health care, iPads, HD TV, the internet, cell phones, etc) and you need to work HARDER, not less, to create all these things. It’s like saying that “because we have farming machinery we should to work less to put a plasma TV in every house. “ That statement is broken, not the system.
Things need to be profitable, or at least have a hope of being useful. We spent all that money because the STAKE OF THE WORLD was at risk. You want governments to do something horribly inefficient “for the sake of it” Think of the sacrifice that was made in WWII to evolve so fast. I mean really, think of how many lives were lost & torn up. Think of how many hours where wasted, etc, etc. Think of how horrible you are suggesting you make life for people now to create a possible gain for the next generation. Not to mention that there are so many possible UFO/Alien ties to the quick WWII evolution that it may have not been us at all (not saying that was true, just expounding my argument.)
So I think you’re nuts. I mean that with love. :) I certainly agree w/ your first paragraph though.