The Trillion Dollar Paradox

We've become really bad at long-range thinking in today's society. Would you invest a lot of money in infrastructure now to ensure the quality of life yourself in ten or twenty years and for future generations? In the example they give, the answer is duh, yes. Throw in some more factors, like survival, and the answer is hell yes! But people still have a tendency to disregard the future to hold onto a dollar now. We are talking about energy consumption. It doesn't help that opposing factions have their own current dollars to consider.