Rocket Packs
Rocket Packs
[Text above the frame.] Rocket packs are easy. [In the frame: Cueball is lying face down on the ground with his Rocket Packs on his back and his calves severely burned.] Cueball: Ow. [Text below the frame.] The hard part is inventing the calf shields.

In the early 20th century, visions of the future usually stipulated that everyone would travel around with rockets strapped to their backs. However, this has not yet come to pass, at least for the majority of consumers.
In this comic, Randall is pointing out that the problem with personal rocket packs - more commonly called jet packs - is not how to attach a rocket to someone's back, but other practical considerations. One might be how to keep the hot exhaust from burning the user's calves . Many jet pack designs actually do have ways to deal with this, such as moving the rockets farther from the user, but there are many other practical issues which have made this an impractical form of travel given current technology.
The title text starts with the trope " I want my jet pack ", a theme also explored in 864: Flying Cars . It continues with pointing out that if people did start using rocket packs, there would also be more injuries, raising health care costs. That's something that people usually don't consider when imagining a future where these devices are commonplace.
So the year when the comic was published the demand was:
'It's 2014--I want my jetpack [and also my free medical care covering all my jetpack-related injuries]!'
[Text above the frame.] Rocket packs are easy. [In the frame: Cueball is lying face down on the ground with his Rocket Packs on his back and his calves severely burned.] Cueball: Ow. [Text below the frame.] The hard part is inventing the calf shields.
