Re: Current government + IT = not important / ignorant
Computing isn't alone in this - it's a systemic problem whenever money is involved. Maintenance of any system costs money and, to the untrained eye, even after spending a fortune on "upgrades" and "urgently needed works" you end up exactly where you (think you) started. IT is just one of many crucial bits of infrastructure that's seen as a money pit and people will rarely want to spend time and money on it until it's already become an expensive catastrophe. I think it's just how many people are wired.
Bit of a tangent, but episode 5 of Stewart Brand's excellent series "How Buildings Learn" touches on the same subject and looking back on it now (when I first saw it I was still in school) it's amazing how many of the lessons are directly applicable to IT (although probably not a coincidence as Brand comes from a computing background himself).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_dozoqw4To
Biting the hand that feeds IT
