I agree with everything in your post, except that this was driven by a desire for big government.
The Eisenhower interstate road program, like much in our society during and after WW-II has been driven by the militarization of of our nation, which many call the "National Security State". We stepped into Great Britain's "empire shoes" in 1940 and greatly embellished their role.
I think very few American's appreciate what an enormous percentage of our Federal and State taxes, and deficits, are spent on National Security State operations. Military spending is hidden everywhere in the budget. The largest single item in the "relief spending" for hurricane Katrina so far has been the upgrade of a Naval Base.
Everyone in Los Angeles saw a another spectacular light show last night. Some media reported it was the launch of a "military research satellite", while others called it a "weather satellite", from Vandenberg Air Base near of Santa Barbara. Most don't know that Vandenberg is the launch base for the military shuttle, and don't believe you if you tell them.
Military spending makes up a large part of the NASA budget, the Farm Subsidy budget, the HUD budget, the Education budget and more. Best estimates, before the war in Iraq, were that 48% of the Federal budget was military spending. With the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, who knows how high the percentage is now.
The better gas mileage produced by Hybrid cars is important, even if superstitious natives from backward parts of the globe don't agree. But the potential savings produced by this type of technology is a drop in the bucket when compared with the utter waste of running our empire.
I believe the war in Afghanistan and Iraq and the reduction in oil and refined product from Iraq is entirely responsible for the current high price of oil and gasoline. Without the wars, we would not be short of refining capacity. Its amazing how few have noticed that gasoline prices climbed only after the war.
Few have wondered why Bush angrily threatened to build refineries on military bases after oil companies have made little effort to expand refinery capacity to meet the war demand. Why should oil companies destroy their post-war refining margins by expanding sufficiently to meet the temporary demands of the Bush wars? No reason at all, and Bush doesn't like that one bit.
At some point American's are going to need to assess whether they really want to continue to militarize our economy and pay for running an empire. Its one of the major reasons I enjoy spending part of each year in Australia -- its a normal society without the burden of empire. Ordinary citizens have significant savings for their retirement and there are not the massive ghettos which fill American cities.
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