I recently finished reading Mission Economy by Marianna Mazzucato, a great book urging governments to reconsider their role in capitalist societies by moving away from merely de-risking the supposed innovation of the private sector and instead leading economic, societal, and technological change.
The book explores the way the US government looked at itself at the time of the Apollo program when it decided that the whole of the United States, as a country, was on a mission to put a man on the moon. This set in motion a national agenda led by the government that resulted in countless innovations either created within the government itself or funded by the government as a direct response to the Apollo program: from GPS, camera phones, and laptops, to CAT scans, ear thermometers, and baby formula.
The relationship between the government and the private sector at that time had the government as the visionary of the future, with the private sector supporting the realisation of that bold and larger-than-life vision.
Contrast that with today, where it is common to perceive the government as an old, uninspired institution whose sole role is to create an environment for the private sector to come and innovate. In this role, the government must get out of the way and only intervene in the case of a market failure.
