Smart State
The world will need smart government more than ever in 2016. The
state is becoming bigger, thanks in large part to the emergency measures
taken to avert economic collapse. But the resources to support the
Leviathan are limited, with tax revenues shrinking and public debt
ballooning. This is raising a question with increasing urgency: can
governments learn to do more with less? Can they, in other words, become
smarter?
Happily, the crisis has given states some of the tools they need to
improve their jobs. A big constraint on smart government is the
difficulty of getting smart people to work for the public sector. But
with so many of the private sector's great hiring machines sputtering,
governments have been given a once-in-a-generation chance to hire the
best and the brightest.
Technologies like personal computers and smart phones have reshaped
every corner of society. Figures like Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and
Steve Wozniak are commonly heralded as the god-like innovators of
these planet shifting technologies, but the new documentary The Smart State makes a much different and far less popular argument.
While private industry figureheads like Jobs and Wozniak are to be
credited for their keen foresight, aggressive marketing skills and
sleekly attractive packaging, the bulk of the advanced technologies they
employed in their products resulted from the sweat and ingenuity of the
public sector. In the opening moments of the film, a technology expert
dissects the innards of a smart phone. The origin of each working part
becomes clear through every step of his examination.
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