The moon landing was also a highly politically motivated project - spreading the dream of space exploration was just a means to an end. But it's a great dream, even with that context.
I would have preferred a healthcare financing system, personally. But I guess we got technology instead.
We spend far far more on healthcare than space or sea exploration already.
Yea, because we have a completely ass-backwards way of funding it.
Anyway what I'm referring to is the spending of political capital in the context of the 60s. The rest of the world got socialized healthcare; we got a space program.
I don't really see this as a problem, frankly. Space and sea exploration has little value compared to health care.
Indeed, the moon landing wasn't the universally-lauded come-together moment people like to portray it as. MLK had been assassinated the previous year and the Vietnam War was in full swing; there were a lot of things on people's minds (and greatly varying opinions on what the government ought to be spending money on). The common memory of the event can mostly be chalked up to a combination of propaganda and the people who tend to be able to get their writing about it published (white Baby Boomers).