Honey, did you water the concrete?

I do not know about you, but I am rather dismayed by all the water that is wasted by homeowners and businesses sprinkling concrete, asphalt, brick, and other hard surfaces.  In addition, the fact that the sprinkler systems continue to kick on and water the lawn while it is raining leaves me dumbfounded. It’s not like most concrete is going to magically sprout and flower — someday maybe, but to my knowledge not yet. Pervious concrete does not bother me so much, because I know the water will eventually reach the natural ground.

Water is precious resource and it seems awfully wasteful and expensive to be using it in such inefficient manners. At the very least, one would think the sprinkler installation firms could devise a method for not watering hard surfaces and the manufacturers could come up with a design that recognizes rainfall and shuts off. Am I wrong here?