Almost all of the improvements in standard of living over the past 400 years have come from scientific breakthroughs. Newton's laws probably seemed like an abstract mathematical puzzle at the time, but we wouldn't have steam turbines or skyscrapers or modern transportation without them. There are similar stories for advances in agriculture, medicine, energy distribution, communications, and the list goes on.

Most jobs that people do today in advanced economies wouldn't exist without science and technology. It's bewildering that this needs to be explained on HN of all places.