Some of our greatest cultural and technological achievements took place between 1945 and 1971. Why has progress stalled?

I read this a few years back before I got into leftist stuff and wasn't able to properly diagnose the problem (neoliberalism). But I still think about this all the time.

I remember growing up and playing the Mega Man games on NES and the prologue would say that the game took place in 200X. Also all the speculative sci-fi from back then really bums me out when I see what we have today.

Here's my hot take: if it wasn't for our shitty economic system, there's no doubt in my mind that we would actually have sent people to Mars and cured a whole bunch of diseases.

If Keynesianism got us all the stuff we have so far (cuz tbh most "advances" since the 70s are really only building on stuff that was already there), imagine what a truly socialist world could produce...

  • queenjamie [none/use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I get your frustration with vanity projects just to show off, but I think that something like the moon landing did generate legitimate enthusiasm. There are generations of scientists and engineers that became who they are today because they were inspired by such things. It seems like a somewhat good metric for progress if you ask me.

    And it's not just a matter of money. There are technical problems to overcome. Plus if you fuck it up then you may not get another chance at funding.