This is just like everything else:
No problems renting rider trucks until oklahoma city
No attention given to 9/11 style attacks until after 9/11
No attention given to biological defense [and still not enough now] until after the anthrax attacks.
No attention will be given to asteroids until one hits. Or comes close enough that we need to do something about it.
It isn't like it hasn't happened before - there have been several that have passed closer than the moon in recent history - and one that destroyed 800 square miles in 1908.
Oh well - one big enough to wipe out the state of new jersey only comes along every 100 years or so....
<>Pea-size meteroids--10/hr
<>Walnut-size--1/hr
<>Grapefruit-size--1/10 hrs
<>Basketball-size--1/mo
<>50-m rock that would wipe out an area the size of New Jersey--1/century
<>1-km asteroid--1/100,000 yrs
<>2-km asteroid--1/500,000 yrs
<>A "nemesis" parabolic comet impactor would give us only a 6-month warning.
from
http://www.usm.maine.edu/~planet/tung.html
I think I have read something like 6 out of 7 hit the ocean.
Amazing that something that small can cause that much damage.