Plan to become a world space power.
my plan for my country to become a military leader in technology and spaceflight is to lower as many regulatory barriers to amateur rocketry as possible. Everyone should be able to take up building a rocket if they feel like. * Maybe public transport to public rocket test sites in all major cities. * Maybe try to replace sports with rocket design contests. It used to be javelin toss. Now it is rocket-propelled infantry-lunched precision spear strike. * Maybe a government funded program to compensate those were were crushed by an errant hobbyist rocket. Importantly, we have no export controls on rockets. Rockets are a product anyone can make and anyone can sell to anyone who buys. (Notably, we do regulate rockets with explosive warheads; this is the the fig-leaf we use to deny claims arms trafficking. We don't do arms trafficking anymore than pick-up exporters are.) With amateur rocketry as a popular national past-time, we should have a deep pool of talent for commercial excellence for any national rockery company we might hope to found. Other countries discourage amateur rocketry with regulation and liability, so it should be easy to fill this niche by specializing our culture. In contrast, you can't do this to become a major software center, because everyone has a computer and thus programming has attracted a near maximum number of hobbyist. Plus, everywhere wants to be the next silicon valley. Let us hope that my country does a minimal number of accidental missile strikes on foreign territory.
