> What if we built things that are meant to last? Would the world be better for it?

You'd have a better bridge, at the expense of other things, like hospitals or roads. If people choose good-enough bridges, that shows there is something else they value more.

Look up Roman concrete. There are 2000 year old bridges and aqueducts still in use.

We only recently figured out how to reproduce Roman concrete.

We’d have more but a lot were blown up during WWII.

Devil's advocate here. Maybe we'd all forget how to build bridges in the next thousand years, after bridging all the bridg-able spans.

What if instead of one bridge we build three, so more people can cross the river?