Computers, radio, internet, etc. all started as big government spending with eyes towards military applications. Spending 406 billion on a program like this la

Computers, radio, internet, etc. all started as big government spending with eyes towards military applications. Spending 406 billion on a program like this largely _is_ giving it back to the people: productive people who are designing and manufacturing parts, building technological know-how and innovating to meet the ambitious goals of the program. Spending money like this is the luxury we have earned by becoming a civilization - the more money we have to spare, the more we can re-invest it into learning new things instead of spending it on subsistence, making life for future generations better in an exponential sort of way. This type of spending is a huge component of how we build that human skill and expertise you're talking about.