Anonymous stated:
"Technology that works usually gets started right away, planes for instance, 20 years after the Wright brothers they were all over the place."

Yes; 20 years after the Wright's, planes were everywhere. But your observation misses the preceding 400 years at minimum of mans' attempt to get heavier-than-air vehicles to work. I can start with the drawings of at least da Vinci; perhaps there were even older plans for flying craft. Yet persistence over all this time, coupled with incrementaly advanced technology over succeeding centuries, and despite MANY tremendous failures (and self-rightous naysayers by the dozen), have given us the ability to cross the world's oceans in mere hours. Clearly, the technology did not work nor get started right away, and yet here we are using it to great advantage nonetheless. Pick any advancement technologically, and I'll bet the same can be said about it.

About 6 years ago, I had a private musical instructor who was highly doubtful of the power of the internet to do anything worthwhile. Yet here we sit discussing the finer points of the persistence of man to overcome obstacles to create the world in his vision, using the internet. And I'll bet Jeff Bezos would disagree with my former instuctor, not to mention the untold number of people making use of Ebay.

Furthermore, I will also mention that anyone of great success will tell you that failure is the path to success. Edison, Trump, Kiyosaki, Tesla - you name it. Today's failure is a kernal of truth, a moment for reflection - "why did this fail today, and what can I do to fix it the next time?" Edison tried over ONE THOUSAND different ways to make the concept of a lightbulb a reality. He did not stop at iteration 2, or 10, or 138. He continued refining his materials, technique, and technology until he made it work! Continuing in this vein, I would also like to point out our (U.S.; western) concept of government as envisioned by the Founders. A limited constitutional republic, which has been the bright light for the world for over 200 years. It can be argued that governance is a form of technology, and yet after all of these 200+ years, there are many nations out there that haven't accepted this form organization, despite what most of us would agree (yeah, it currently has some ugly bugs, but still...) is the best damn state of the art for freedom, prosperity, and individuality there is. Your line of reasoning, in essence, would therefore consider our freedom a "failure" since it hasn't become as widespread or as "free of flaws" as you would like to see.