Technology is being blunted
Look around the kitchen you're in. There isn't much innovation in there that's more recent than 1964. And cars? Very, very modest improvements. If you think that's not the case then
consider it took just 60+ years to go from the Wright Flyer to the SR-71 Blackbird!! And in the 60 years since? The Shuttle?? Give me a break! WHERE'S MY JETPACK!? The answer? I believe the money has been dammed or diverted to the monopoly game called The Finance Market.
These people call themselves "financiers, capitalists and investors"? Under that logic the punter at the race track is an "investor". He goes down the newspaper column, looks at the previous results and "expert" punter predictions, buys pieces of paper, and if he wins: Presto! He collects more paper. Nothing created but that money could've gone to pay the wages or investments for further research. Of course if he loses then he mugs the guy in the street for $700B and heads right back to the track, er.. stock market.
And as a further blow to innovation the govt. doesn't want us to get too technological. They worry about break-ins on the 30th floor so there'll never be anti-grav/jet pack machines. They see drunk-driving at 500km/h so no flying cars. Free energy research leads inevitably to removing the oil hegemony and tax revenues. Technology could end up making us so independent we virtually secede from "the-powers-that-be" of a taxing society. Also "bad" is uninhibited communication/freedom of information so now you need your passport to get a mobile phone. Look at the internet. It's tax free. They can't control these things.
So.. no moon base. Technology is muted by control of the $$$ excepting certain fields like more tracking/NSA satellites.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
