Consider two industries, aviation and space launch, both highly complex, where safety is paramount. Two modes of pursuit, government and private. Space launch: NASA budget is $25 billion annually, stolen from taxpayers SpaceX budget is $20 billion, private capital stolen from nobody NASA operating for 70 years, SpaceX for 20 Despite more money, and decades of head start, NASA has atrophied and slid backwards, doing nothing interesting for decades And while the government's Air Traffic Control wants $50 billion to "upgrade their software" and arguably doing a worse job than they did 20 years ago, SpaceX is flying rockets and catching them back on Earth Markets and private industry are how civilization progresses. The State is why it doesn't seem to.