I mean you guys have a system set up to create excellence whenever you put your minds to it. You seem first to moon (allegedly), are the number 1 rocket platform for bringing payloads to space, are creating dire wolfs. You’re saying ya’ll couldn’t make better stuff if you have an incentive to do so?
Discussion
But what, exactly, is or should be "the incentive"? Government policies that put a thumb on the scale to promote some vague idea of "national greatness"?
Or the free market, which has roundly decided that it doesn't make sense for American workers to be (as our Commerce secretary so eloquently put it) "screwing in tiny screws on iPhones"?
Just because something is hard doesn't mean it's worth doing.