One of my great frustrations in almost all political debates is the real lack of understanding of our history. I'd like to highlight just a bit of it as it relates to the government, business and picking winners and losers.
Our Founding Fathers were tinkerers. Today they'd be known as hackers or makers. People of course know about Franklin and some about Jefferson, but up and down the ranks of those considered founders the urge to tinker was prominent. People forget that even Lincoln was considered something of an inventor. Because of that a deep understanding of what support was need for innovation to flourish permeated the early government. A brief look at machining and machine tools in America can give a good idea of just how much conscious government policy spurs innovation.
Even before the revolution government was picking winners and by winners it was understood to be the common good. The Massachusetts Bay Colony voted subsidies for manufacturing. John Winthrop sent his son to England to recruit workers and buy equipment for iron-manufacturing facility. By 1647 the Saugus Iron Works was up and running and by the end of the first year it was one of the most productive Iron Works in the world. From there workers fanned out throughout New England and established their own works. By the time of the Iron Act of 1750 there were so many small Iron Works that by the time of the Revolution America was producing 1/7 of the world's iron.
After the revolution and especially after the war of 1812 it became the conscious policy of the US to encourage the development of machining. (Understand that is is a foundational technology that much like the internet today was a basic requirement of true innovation). The primary vector of this policy was of course armament. From the time George Washington established the Springfield and Harpers Ferry arsenals they became sources of innovation. This innovation was not limited to guns and it was well understood that it would enable a wide range of manufacturing. In the face of England dumping manufactured goods at prices below cost to discourage American manufacturing. The Federal government decided to force a technological breakthrough and turned to Eli Whitney to do so.
He proposed to automate the process of arms manufacture and standardize the parts. By the time he had completed the contract, the government had adopted his system at the Springfield and Harpers Ferry Arsenals. This became known as Armoury Practice. It was decided that the Springfield Armoury because of the high concentration of machinists in the area would be the source of standardized gauges that components would be measured against and that the Armouries would serve as research laboratories as well as production facilities, and private contractors were to be given access to their discoveries. Government sponsored open source, open hardware right from the start.
I urge people to search out more and better information on this. I really only hit the highlights. How the Crystal Palace exhibition led to America basically setting up the Enfield Armory in the 1850s is also fascinating.