Red Bull is bad for you man. Especially seven in one night.
Anyhow, the gains from such a revalation in society could be enourmous. Unfortunately man, as a creature, is self-centered and greedy. For a an individual to realize that the betterment of society could ultimate better his own place would be pretty amazing. I can think to myself that it would be a great great world, but at the end of the day, I'll still put in an hour of overtime, for the cash, and then race someone to the store to get the last copy of Morrowind. And on a whole, most people will do the same.
Humans aren't a communal creature. We could learn a lot from certain animal cultures (ants, termintes, bees). However even those societies need a leader and when you put a man (subject to greed) in charge, things will almost certainly develop from your ideal Utopia to a dictatorship. "Take a mortal man, put him in control, watch him become a god, watch people's heads a-roll."
It's not easy to argue things like this on a discussion board I think either, as opions and arguments tend to change as the arguments progress for most people.
As for this society resulting in a lack of drive for improvement, I seriously doubt that. There are always people that want to know more, and want to be able to do more with what we know. Great discoveries are usually made when great people cooperate. We could move farther and faster in this ideal society.
BTW, the deserts are probably there for a reason, maybe turning them into useable farm land isn't a good idea?
Just my narrow opinion (hoping to be expanded by further replies).
-Whir