Agreed, Robert.
Space is first of all about knowledge, science and our insatiable curiosity.
Unfortunately, very few are curious and many many more are...greedy.
If space does bring back money, it's generally from activities that are well understood and have been tested for years and where profit does exist. But those fields are not new, therefore do they interest the curious guys? Frankly, I'm not even that much interested in the Ariane 4 launch due to happen soon, as it's aim is purely commercial.
But all those HST, Galileo, MGS pictures....now that's interesting! Cost effective? Well no, but as long as somebody understands the meaning of curiosity (and that's generally a government related institution), then we go on exploring.
And people up there? Well, it's not even cost effective yet...unless the Russians manage to do it.

Raoul