Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service

by Michael Lewis

the work being done at JPL is the most inspiring research and exploration being done by any humans on our planet. And it’s paid for by you. No billionaires will fund work like this because there’s no money in it. This is government-funded research to determine how the universe was created and whether we are alone in it. If NASA and JPL were not doing it, it would not be done.

The gathering of data exemplifies our ambition for a stable, coherent society. The United States is an Enlightenment project based on the supremacy of reason; on the idea that things can be empirically tested; that there are self-evident truths; that liberty, progress and constitutional government walk arm in arm and together form the recipe for the ideal state. Statistics—numbers created by the state to help it understand itself and ultimately to govern itself—are not some side effect of that project but a central part of what government is and does.

When our government works well, it is our best tool for building a country that works for all of us. And if young people aren’t a major part of that government, then we will get the results we deserve.