>This essay makes a fallacy case, "it is this way, therefore it must be this way"
That must be the case that some other article is making. This article is making the case that "it is this way", or more clearly that "it's a myth that entrepreneurs drive new technology; for real innovation, thank the state". Hint: it's in the title.
"In this era of obsession with reducing public debt—and the size of the state more generally—it is vital to dispel the myth that the public sector will be less innovative than the private sector."
where the implication is that we should continue to let the state fund innovation via procurement and internal research
I personally think a mixed economy is great, as long as there is a balance.
The examples seem cherry-picked. Where are any examples of the countless investments/grants by the state that have produced absolutely nothing in the way of advanced technology?
Are you saying that free market advocates don't cherry pick their examples, and ignore confounding factors in the examples they pick, to favor their narrative?
I think that historical evidence has shown that a mixed economy, with some of the taxes going to fund safety nets, nationalized health insurance (eg medicare) and education (eg vouchers), long term infrastructure projects (eg interstate highways), and subsidies for research projects (eg non fossil fuel based energy sources) does very well, and has been more stable than extremes of ideology, whether socialist or anarcho capitalist. So why not maintain what's been working well, and instead constantly advocate some ideologically pure utopian vision?
The state may invest in things like DeLorean, but it also invests in things like diamagnetic levitation, with which we are finally able to make flying mice. And who doesn't want flying mice?
That must be the case that some other article is making. This article is making the case that "it is this way", or more clearly that "it's a myth that entrepreneurs drive new technology; for real innovation, thank the state". Hint: it's in the title.