Why Not Another Manhattan Project?

Whenever Doom and Gloomers start talking about how bad things are in America, the question always arises: Why not just pull another Manhattan Project to solve it? Whatever "it" is.  The idea being that any existential crisis for America could be met by an all-out effort of the magnitude of the Manhattan Project or the Apollo Moon Project, both being seen in their days as solving the existential crises of their day.

The differences I see between conditions in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's and those today revolve around resources, specifically petroleum (energy) and strategic minerals (materials). America no longer has cheap, plentiful quantities of oil, iron, chromium, manganese, cobalt, platinum and others. The US is 100% dependent on foreign suppliers for 17 minerals and more than 50% dependent for another 24. Some examples include:

Element	Percent Dependent	Uses	Source Countries
Arsenic	100	Semiconductors: Gallium Arsenide	Monoco,China,Belgium
Bauxite	100	Principle ore of aluminum	Jamaica,Brazil,Guinea,Australia
Cesium	100	Photoelectron cells, catalyst	Canada
Indium	100	Semiconductors: Indium arsenide	China,Canada,Japan,Belgium
Strontium	100	Specialty glass, Ferrite ceramic magnets	Mexico,Germany,China
Thorium	100	Heat resistant ceramics, potential nuclear reactor fuel (LFTR)	India,France
Gallium	99	Semiconductors: Gallium arsenide, solar panels	Germany,United Kingdom,china,Canada
Vanadium	96	Steel and titanium alloys, catalyst in production of H2SO4	Republic of Korea,Austria,Canada,Czech Republic
Bismuth	92	Medicine, cosmetics, low-melting alloys	China,Belgium,United Kingdom
Platinum	91	Catalyst, jewelry, Platinum-Cobalt magnets	Germany,South Africa,United Kingdom,Canada
Germanium	90	Semiconductors, catalyst, anti-microbial	China,Belgium,Germany,Russia
Iodine	88	Disinfectant, essential nutrient, catalyst, photography	Chile,Japan

On May 10, 1940, when Germany ended the "phony war" and attacked the west through Holland and Belgium, America had less than a 6 months supply of rubber. More than 90% of America's rubber came from the Dutch East Indies, and this supply was in jeopardy. America responded with the formation of a Corporation to purchase at least a year's supply of rubber, the building of synthetic-rubber plants, and an effort to bring into production new sources of natural rubber in South America.

This type of response, the "market-driven" one, holds that increased needs will lead to increased supply. It also helps to reinforce the traditional lore of "Yankee Ingenuity", the concept that Americans are a bit smarter than others and can always invent their way out of a crisis.