Carriers are designed as they are in part because the Navy still has an institutional memory of the effects of battle damage. Ships last a long time, and so this memory has a long time constant. And perhaps more importantly, the results of the design decisions are physically visible, and fairly readily understood by non-experts.

There are analagous redundancy and diversification vs. efficiency tradeoffs in a host of important civilian systems – power generation, communications, gasoline refining, ports, etc. What would some redundancy be worth in the event of a single EMP burst over New York, or Houston? How does one achieve a reasonable level of infrastructure or systems insurance?

Generally, I think this is one of the best arguments for leaving as much power and decisoin making as possible at the local and state level, rather than concentrating it at the Federal level. When the Feds make mistakes, they are big ones.