If there is an industry that exemplifies the virtues of the private sector, it is technology. In the past 30 years a wave of innovations has transformed the lives of consumers in the developed world, allowing people to engage in a huge range of activities by using devices they can hold in their hand. Governments' role in pushing forward technological progress has been widely underestimated, as Mariana Mazzucato shows in her book, "The Entrepreneurial State". The first computers were developed by governments, as were jet engines, nuclear power and lasers. The internet grew out of Arpanet, a project nurtured by America's Defence Department. It took government-launched satellites to enable global positioning systems to work. Touchscreen technology was invented by academics with the help of government funding. Even the algorithm that made Google so successful was created with the aid of a grant from America's National Science Foundation.
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