We seem very, very backwards in a lot of ways, and very forwards in a lot of others. I'm not sure why this is. My very rudimentary guess is that especially as of the post-WWII timeline, we Americans like to have a lot of stuff (which would explain the "forwards" part; the desire for new and necessary "toys" breeds technology) - but stuff gets made and marketed by corporations, and those corporations are sort of like modern-day plantations in that they function at their most profitable when they have cheap labor - and a steady supply of it. So it's in THEIR interest to keep the population as dumb and prolificly reproducing as possible, so there are always plenty of workers and not much questioning of immoral practices.

But that's just a guess. :-/