I read this with a different eye after having read Chip Wars -- the big chip companies have been spooning the government since the earliest days, using similar arguments the whole time. I know the standard argument will be "let the free market be free" and it's true, that will produce, globally, the best allocation of resources.

But if you're a nation-state, and you don't want the globally-best allocation to result in you having no foundries in your own country, how do you feel then? Or if you are entirely dependent on someone else, perhaps a hostile force, for your food or energy? An uneasy set of principles to hold in a practical world.