When I saw this thread, I had to ask myself "is a long term plan even practical at this point in the history of our civilization?"
The rate of change of our culture and technology is faster than ever before. In fact, I think at this point in time we change faster than any civilization that had ever existed.
The Romans invested hugh resources and time into their aquaducts and they were able to use them for hundreds of years. But if you look at today's society, last year's fashion is this year's out-of-date fashion for losers. Almost everything you invest in will be out-of-date by this time next year. The resulting mentality is "why waste vast amounts of resources and time into this today if tomorrow's technology will solve the problem?"
Besides, long term plans usually don't show results nearly fast enough for the planner to be embraced. Our current culture values the here and the now much more than the there and the then. People want to see results right away.
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