Where are the flying cars?

When I--and I'm sure a lot of you out there--were kids, the big thing was the impending appearance of flying cars, moon bases and rocket suits that would whisk us from house to office in minutes flat, all while digesting our 'protein pills', instead of eating Breakfast.All this was supposed to have been fait accompli by now, I mean '2001' WAS 8 years ago, right? We were supposed to be on our way to the stars or living in some post-apocalyptic radioactive wasteland or slaves to chimps and gorillas by now, depending on what movie or novel we read.
Here's the thing,though: other than a few obvious technological advances *hugs his computer* we're living essentially the way we were 30 years ago, when I was young. The houses are the same, no plexiglasss, 175 storey mega-condo towers , like we were lead to think would exist.
No hover-cars;just the same old internal combustion engines in slightly sleeker chassis, although the Mercedes SmartCar Forone is oddly reminiscent of those teeny-tiny cars they told us we'd be driving in the Megatropolis of the "future".

So, the question remains: Why AREN'T they here? Why are we living the way we've always lived: In neighbourhoods, with Grocery stores where we still have to buy food. Malls where almost none of the clothes sold are made of NASA polyfibre mesh or come in metallic colours.