[CmdrShep2154 (OP)]

The transcontinental railroad, built with exploited Chinese workers, the Wright Flyer, the Model T, FDR's programs during "The Great Depression", the WW2 mobilization, the interstate highway system, yes I know it bulldozed minority neighborhoods, the civil rights movement, the women's rights movement, and the Apollo program which inspired the environmental movement and laws with Apollo 8's "Earthrise" photo and greatly accelerated the development of computer technology.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90362753/how-nasa-gave-birth-to-modern-computing-and-gets-no-credit-for-it [nofollow]

I say that we should aspire to achievement but without exploitation and exclusion.

But looking back during the past 10 years it seems like American society can't seem to achieve amazing achievements like that. That we can't commit to great achievement.

This was a bit exciting but it pales in comparison to the Apollo program.

Instead of building medium sized reusable rockets and LEO space capsules and instead of merely dominating the market of civilian satellites and restoring human spaceflight to LEO a much more visionary and exciting program would have been something like SpaceX's "Starship" that would lead much lower costs for deploying massive space stations and human spaceflight to LEO, the Moon, and Mars as well as making missions to Mars and the asteroid belt much cheaper which would lead to asteroid mining and O'Neill cylinders and not only that but much more capable asteroid defense and deploying space telescopes much more powerful than the JWST but at a much lower cost than the Space Launch System.

Imagine massive numbers of enthusiastic young Americans recruited from colleges and elsewhere to come together and make something like this during the 2015-2016 time period.

But sadly I did not know anyone from my typical American middle class suburban school district who went into science or engineering.

It seemed like stuff like "Science" and "Engineering" were considered "Uncool" but that seemed more of a middle school thing at least where I come from.

And even sadder than that several problems were allowed to get worse.

The increase of homelessness and drug addiction. The normalization of mass shootings. The prevalence of far right and far left ideology. The increase in dumber and crazier conspiracy thinking such as "Space is Fake" and "Flat Earth".

Could American society have done something amazing by 2019 and avoid having those problems becoming as big as they became if in 2010 American society was inspired by JFK to commit to working towards achieving something amazing by the end of that decade?

Faster progress in space? Faster progress in AI? Faster progress in Fusion power? Great reduction in smog in cities?

It would probably have been smarter to aim for a great domestic achievement but the big inspiring space program with fully reusable super heavy lift launch vehicles aligned with visions of Moon bases, Mars colonies, O'Neill cylinders, and asteroid mining could have perhaps inspired many youth to go into science or engineering much like what the Apollo program did in the 60s and early 70s.

[Petrochemicals]

America has all the ballistic missile technology it requires, so it doesnt need the expense. Mining asteroids is obviously prohibitively expensive, it is possible to synthesise gold but that too is not economically viable.

Computers and AI are the watchwords of the moment, far cheaper than space travel. What is there for anyone to do in space? it is cheaper just to send a a probe. To have manned space exploration you are going to need a few things, a gravity manipulation device and a power source, most likely fusion and an engine, there are advancements in engines that have not been utilised. The only reason for a manned space programme I can think of would be a moon base and telescope, a mirror a hundred meters across on the moon should be pretty revealing. 

[alancalverd]

Science and engineering = fossil fuels = bad. The current generation has been brought up to worry about  burning coal and also to vote against the decline of coalburning industries. Better to do nothing.