Markets are good at making products, but markets are awful at making scientific and technological discovery. Markets will indeed improve existing technology, b

Markets are good at making products, but markets are awful at making scientific and technological discovery. Markets will indeed improve existing technology, but they won't find anything really ground breaking. A smartphone is just a compact desktop, with less functionalities and capabilities. It's just another product, there's nothing really new about a smartphone. DARPA and NASA can do research markets just can't do, not because the markets are not able, but because markets are just an economical tool to deliver products. I'm not arguing for communism, but I think that real research can't be driven by profits. > Focused government research will create the impressive Soviet space program and leave little room for TVs, microwaves and smartphones, and spread misery and massive waste around. Since when does TV, microwaves and smartphone solve misery and waste ? I'm just saying you need space for both capitalism and government, I think today, after the end of the cold war, in the US, there is just too much space given to companies and capitalism, and not enough to research that benefits the public. Without support of the government, Tesla would have never appeared. Markets are just not able to create real alternative, they tend to scratch for more monopoly and monolithic technologies. More lawyers, more intellectual property, less engineering and real innovation. It's crazy to read you talk about the soviets, to even manage to have a space program without capitalism shows that capitalism is not essential. It's a catalyst, nothing more. It won't give new technlogies, because money speaks for money, not for improvements. Learn to make the difference between increased profits and globally increased efficiency.