A simple answer: too much risk! There is a threshold to capitalism. The problem is that no one has yet figured out how to hedge the bet, attempt to solve extre

A simple answer: too much risk! There is a threshold to capitalism. The problem is that no one has yet figured out how to hedge the bet, attempt to solve extremely risky borderline impossible problems, and guarantee a profit. It's much much safer to go after an obvious, well-described, minor problem that over 50% of the population experiences and would pay a minor sum to improve. It's a safe bet. And there are a lot of those! The other problem is surely capital and education. They've diverged and are being pulled in opposite directions. Higher education saddles you with debt and makes you extremely risk averse. You can't ever get access to capital because you're always playing it safe. So the system has been inadvertently designed to lock out these "big problem" jobs, because, again, they are too risky for people to undertake. And then the rich are also risk-averse these days. The focus is on ROI and increasing wealth—look at Warren Buffet, one of the world's richest men, entirely rewarded for being risk-averse and investing in solid, tried-and-true companies. And you're surprised that the big problems aren't being solved? People like Buffet aren't investing in them, at least not at a large scale. And they're rewarded for that behavior. The system is set up to reward this sort of behavior. The idea is that once you get rich, you invest "prudently" and grow your wealth. You don't bet it all on the big problem that's probably impossible. Except sometimes you do. Some people are solving the big problems. Elon Musk is up there doing it (in space and on the ground). Bill Gates and Buffet too are putting up a lot to fight seemingly impossible big health problems. This is all excellent, and not to be ignored. I think the incentives are not yet aligned correctly to get the result you're looking for. What you want is to reward risk taking, and capitalism just doesn't do that in the right way. There are too many hurdles, too many punishments for failure. And the right people to solve the problems aren't the same ones who have the capital to get the solving done, for so many reasons. There's your big problem to solve—fix that system. Align the incentives. It's the meta-problem, and if you solved that, the world would probably be a better place. (Hint: there are already some good solutions, but the America won't vote for them)