Yeah, but when tech innovation becomes the only way out of a shitty situation, you incentivize tech innovation! I guess some smart folk figured out that in orde

Yeah, but when tech innovation becomes the only way out of a shitty situation, you incentivize tech innovation! I guess some smart folk figured out that in order to maintain superpower status at all costs you need to maintain the lead at hard-to-replicate tech-innovation, and paying the cost of this with your people's quality of life, and sometimes with their lives, is worth it. For some people at the top it's a big difference between being at the top of "just some random first world country", and being at the top of "practically the world". Regular people can change the countries they are living in if they don't like the tradeoffs their government is doing, you know... Or vote to change them, but don't be surprised when improving lives comes at the cost of losing "top dog" status. (Note: I'm not an American, but I see the tradefoffs the U.S. made, and I understand they make sense to some.)