This is one of the main problems. Most people think short term. What will it get us now? If we keep waiting until the problems on earth are solved, we will never get off this planet.
Precisely the reason that I think at this current moment, we are better off placing our space dreams in the hands of corporations.
As the science is developed in tandem with NASA (the actual science/research portion is cheaper than the actual product/execution portion, when it comes to space), the corporations may get a sense of how much money can be made under the idea of space tourism and habitation.
Let governments come to the rescue once these ideas actually result in large numbers of humans in space, but only then.
Governments, as a general rule, lack foresight. They are severely shortsighted, so much to a point that as I stated earlier, future problems are simply left for future generations. Oh sure, a few ideas of future well-being are put into play now, but only at much lower cost, and generally, these ideas still ultimately fail where the future is concerned. The actions of government that concern the future are terribly limited in scope, and don't consider nearly enough variables - it is to the point that any future-oriented project that actually succeeds does so entirely due to luck and nothing else. Governments are terrible at planning for long-term future, mainly because nobody cares about the real long-term. I'm not talking the ability to plan for 10, 20, maybe even 50 years. That is shortsighted thinking to limit planning to such a short span of time. There are serious issues future generations will have to face, and their lives could be made much easier if we as a whole decided to face the burden of some decisions today.
But it's two-faced problem: we, as in both the majority of the populace on Earth
and governing bodies, are seriously lacking in foresight; we also have the problem of entitlement, thinking we need only to take on the weight of current-day issues, that we don't need to concern ourselves with the future if that means our way of life will require sacrifices.
Tackling problems using a multi-generation approach is what we need to do, but I zero faith in our civilization to actually not only accept this but have the balls to take on such a burden.
Governing bodies will not see the idea as something that will produce a return of investment for them any time soon, and thus declare it nothing but wasted expenditure that could be put to use elsewhere.
The only way governments will take on that cost is if survival is on the line in the immediate future. Note, it doesn't necessarily have to be human survival, although that risk would certainly produce far better results; the survival of power at the State level, as in State v. State competition, can also produce positive results in the scientific industry. Just look at the Cold War, of which our place in it may ultimately be the only reason we have certain technologies/advancements at this point in time.
The cooperation between government-sponsored scientific communities and profit-minded corporate entities may be exactly what we need right now. It may bring about technological and scientific advancements at a faster rate than if it were left entirely to government funding.
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