It’s been a while since my last book review, I have been reading some but not that much. This book, Moonshot and the subject really spoke to me. And also confirmed some of the things I was already seeing in broader society.
It’s about the necessity of a strong government in solving the issues we as a society face. And working towards those goals in a goal oriented way. And how the absence of the government has created some of the problems we face today.
It’s about those projects that are of vital importance to society but are way out of reach by any standard in todays possibilities , technological or otherwise. And which needs to be done in a relatively short amount of time. Let’s say a moon landing.
It’s about what it takes to het there and how a government unlike most cooperations isn’t bound by shareholders demanding annual dividends, budgets (in some ways) and innovation.
Innovation as an obstacle ? Yes, most if not all innovation comes out of government programs, stuff like radar, lenses , the internet, all out of government funded research facilities. It’s not your average company that does all the hard innovative work, they come up with the consumer products, and be that much later.
The current belief in the market as a one stop shop for the worlds lager problems is flawed , capitalism as the solution bringer an illusion. Without a strong government who sets out the goals not much is done in the way of true innovation.
Markets don’t magically move in the right direction they need strong guidance and more importantly the government should be running the research and the projects. This book really gets into the importance of this, not just trying to nudge the market towards a goal by subsidizing stuff and watching the show.
The government has to have a strong long term view of the goals to solve the problems in larger society , like climate change , inequality , political stability and so on. This book explains the importance of an active government and society in fixing it’s problem. And in the long run also fixing capitalism.