I think in practice it's exactly the opposite. Just look at Silicon Valley. Who is doing the really revolutionary stuff? Self driving cars are Google + the DOD. Space X has burned through about $1 billion in capital, with half of that coming from NASA. Tesla is burning $50-70m per quarter on R&D.
Small companies certainly invent new things, but even then there is usually a lot of money involved, from government contracts, university spin-offs, etc. The wireless tech company where I used to work started out in a basement, and has probably spent $10m+ over the last decade developing its technology (bootstrapped with DARPA contracts).
This is not to say that small-time inventors don't have revolutionary ideas. But in practice, the stuff that happens in a garage isn't inventive but rather application of well-understood technology.
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I think in practice it's exactly the opposite. Just look at Silicon Valley. Who is doing the really revolutionary stuff? Self driving cars are Google + the DOD. Space X has burned through about $1 billion in capital, with half of that coming from NASA. Tesla is burning $50-70m per quarter on R&D.
Small companies certainly invent new things, but even then there is usually a lot of money involved, from government contracts, university spin-offs, etc. The wireless tech company where I used to work started out in a basement, and has probably spent $10m+ over the last decade developing its technology (bootstrapped with DARPA contracts).
This is not to say that small-time inventors don't have revolutionary ideas. But in practice, the stuff that happens in a garage isn't inventive but rather application of well-understood technology.