Governments have a strong say in what is incentivized and what is not through taxation and monetary policy. Governments have similar competition problems as in

Governments have a strong say in what is incentivized and what is not through taxation and monetary policy. Governments have similar competition problems as individuals and companies. If taxes are raised too much, the people with money will take it to other countries with more lenient tax systems. And unpopular policies will cause other political parties to seize the power from their promoters. Money and advertisement also plays a part in campaigns. Finally, if you try to extract competition from politics, you get a tyranny. People on HN likes very much to write comments with the "we as a society" or "we as a species" or "we should do that", but there is really no such we.