> However, in a certain respect this is why government is supposed to exist: we never would have gone to the moon. Or built the highway system. Or train tracks. Or a whole lot of big things which don’t immediately seem to have a benefit.
> (...) I think your idea is absolutely worth personal consideration, but at the same time my feeling is the answer is somewhat obvious on a societal scale. But we’ve lost all trust in government, and there is no political will left to get almost anything done in North America
I agree with you on both these points as well and I would like to add a few thoughts that I have onto it: The trust itself within the government is eroding. I feel like trust within institutions is a highly large factor but we have come to such a wide lack of trust that we can't even communicate on basic matters let alone come to agreements at times.
I have also written an comment about it just a little under a week ago which feels relevant and talks about the trust within institutions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49351114
One paragraph from that comment which I had written which I would like to say again is this:
"Trust works in a society when incentives are aligned with trust ie. you trust the society, the society trusts you back and you do the work with these principles and you are rewarded. Even this belief is something that you must trust that the society is fair. This trust creates your beliefs which sets your base-line incentives.
(Note: I feel as if in this example, society/government are interchangable and perhaps government is part of the larger societal structure in it, I feel like the fundamental issue is of trust/incentives within society. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts about it as well)