An interesting and quite academic look at how venture capitalists and private companies have convinced many that they are the catalyst of innovation, despite the fact the state is the one making most of the investment.

The good: detailed case study of Apple and iPhone. Almost every element of the iPhone has come from state funded innovation, from the Internet, to touchscreen technology. Apple put it all together but the real innovation came from state funded research, quite often military funded.

Strong arguments for the state to get more money back for its investments, and some suggestion on how. The state should, in the current system, get RoI from tax revenue but so many of these larger companies (tech and pharma in particular) avoid paying as much tax as possible, so the state (and tax payers) are getting little return.

There's an excellent point made about certain sectors and venture capitalists lobbying government for lower taxes, not realising that most of the innovative technologies and risky investment come from government spending, so this is actually shooting themselves in the foot.

Not so good: Quite dry and economic at times (unsurprisingly), as well as academic.

The chapter on renewable I skipped most of, as by 2024 much of the data has changed, as have many countries policies so I felt like it would be a bit of a waste for me to dwell on those aspects beyond the core concepts.