How many times have you read that Russia is winning the arms race over the West only because the companies there are state-owned, so they do and develop what they’re told, while the American arms companies concentrate on terribly expensive things and high-margin products. A combination of corruption and a lot of shrewd businessmen then foist that on the military.
I consider that picture to be correct. It’s just…
…when the private armaments sector was booming in the late 19th century, it was largely due to the fact that state-owned munitions companies were not enough fast enough and not skilled enough. States that stuck with state production, were not able to counter those states that combined state money and private enterprise – what we now call the military-industrial complex.
The basic lesson is not that state is better or that private is better. The basic lesson is that every time and every situation calls for a different solution. A also that a private enterprise in 1884 is very different from a corporation of 2025. They don’t play by the same rules.