Yes, of course, we are the only nation to send men to the moon and the only nation not only to bring them back alive but with loads of lunar samples to boot. To do this we had to develop miniaturized computers for lunar exploration (Apollo Program) and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (IBM). We developed the World Wide Web (WWW) and the Geographic Positioning system (GPS), originally for military purposes. These were all Federal government initiatives. Once given these tools, private industry has been able to develop them further into civilian use. It was a great ride. The main role of private industry is to take an invention and incrementally improve it. Thus we have smart phones like Blackberries and iPhones I, II, III, IV, and now V among others. After some false starts, we now have iPad I, II, and III plus many other tablet computers by other companies. Slowly people are beginning to pay bills with their smart phones. And a multitude of companies offer goods for sale on the internet. These are all wonderful gadgets, but they are not the grand projects of yesteryear.
It was said after WW-II that jet aircraft would find military purposes, but would always be too expensive for commercial use. Now the airline industry is dominated by jet aircraft. On a trip to Hawaii several years ago, a rancher told us that he economically shipped his cattle back to the mainland on Boeing 747s. He could even physically load more cattle on the airplane, but he couldn't because it would overheat the plane. Wonderful. Incidentally, the Boeing 747 was originally developed for military purposes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747).
But somewhere along the line, we seemed to lose it. When? I think it was when we passed up development of the supersonic commercial airplane in the early 1970s. We have competitors now. Our automobile industry let the Germans and the Japanese into the market with more reliable automobiles. I heard the other day that the best selling automobile in California is the Toyota Prius, a hybrid of gasoline and electric motors. We couldn't develop a commercial hybrid car in this country because gasoline was too cheap. There was no incentive for American's to buy high milage gasoline cars because the annual cost of gasoline was at noise level so they had to be developed elsewhere where the price of gasoline is high. Cheap gasoline is slowly disappearing because it sells on global markets that control the price to a large extent. Yes, the Federal government is trying to get the electric car developed so maybe we will catch up on the next generation of automobiles. It is a fine goal with lots of Americans saying it is not worth the effort and cheering every failure. We probably can look forward to growth of the natural gas automobile, something I rode in when in Japan in 1965, but you do lose trunk space.
In solar energy, we have many competitors, but it is gradually getting cheaper. Our government did try to develop solar panels that did not use expensive glass (Solyndra; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solyndra), but the glass panel industry lowered the price of glass to make the cylindrical solid state panels uneconomic and the company declared bankruptcy. We might have cheered forcing down the price of solar panel glass, but all the emphasis was on the failure of the company. I would be surprised if something like the Solyndra method is developed by some other country in the future.
What I find strangest of all is the growing claims that college is not worth it or what I call the Dumbing Down of America: (http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2010/10/dumbing-down-of-america-if-you-listen.html)
We have lost the spirit of exceptionalism in this country. We can get it back if we stop having such negative leadership and return to having more optimistic leadership. Stop emphasizing why we shouldn't do things and return to a can do spirit. Quit insisting that government can't develop things when history has shown that they can.
* A word not in my spell checker, by the way, but see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism
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