Was providing satellite imagery of the entire world to a level where I can make out the plants in my garden, and then providing street view for every single road in my country something that was done by a startup and then bought by Google? Or is something anyone could do with a weekend and a camera mounted on their car?

Yes you can. You need either -
  a Windows system and unetbootin: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
  or, an Ubuntu system with usbcreator: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick#usb-creator%20(Windows%20or%20Linux)

I used unetbootin on Windows and it's a very well-made program, no problems at all.

"1) We are not running out of land to build houses on."

True, but I don't particularly want to live in a country that doesn't have the capacity to feed itself.

...with taxpayer money.

Want to make money? Play live.

I would put money on you having never tried to make money playing live.

Just to note your scalping solution, Glastonbury Festival in the UK actually implements that solution, because at one point 150,000 tickets would sell out within a couple of hours of being released and would mosty go to touts. Since I think last year you've needed to register a photo before you buy a ticket and they are non-transferrable.