Money

The economies of Europe and North America are a combination of free market capitalism along with a wide safety net. This can best be seen in the public (government) and private sectors. It is private business and innovation that promotes economic and job growth. The public sector extracts money (taxes) from the private sector and redistributes that in the form of benefits (public assistance). The US maintains a balance between these two. The extreme on the private side is called Laissex faire which is a hands-off approach by government. On the other extreme is socialism where the government owns the private property. Since the end of WW2 the trend has been to spend more on public areas. Since 1960 non-defense spending has increased from 8% of GDP to 18% while defense spending has decreased from 8% to 4%. One example is social security that costs the government $1.5 trillion in 2024 vs defense which cost $1 trillion. Money spent on defense creates debt and new jobs while money spent on social security creates debt and no new jobs. Money spent on defense also creates innovation which helps private companies to create new jobs. Much of what Musk’s companies are doing have benefited from NASA.