Greater Good of All is a bit nebulous, and quite often translates into rather concentrated good of a few well-connected players. When you mention the space rac

Greater Good of All is a bit nebulous, and quite often translates into rather concentrated good of a few well-connected players. When you mention the space race, you should also add that once the Moon landing was over, the government-supported part of space activity got mostly bogged down in cost-plus boondoggles (see: Space Launch System, also called Senate Launch System), and without a vibrant private sector with deep pockets, the US would be launching maybe some twenty rockets a year now, more likely twelve, each at an extreme cost and without much technological progress. And American capability of supporting human spaceflight would be tenuous at best, or possibly nonexistent. (NASA is not at fault here. The politicians which command it, though... they seem to love giving Boeing et al. expensive projects.)