Thomas Edison, beyond being a great inventor, was a great businessman. This was so important because he was able to secure money and work make his inventions known.
Tesla had a large on many of the important discoveries of the day. Beyond the idea that the country could be hooked up to electricity, Tesla helped with the telegram and radio. More astonishing than that, to me, is the fact that he (in the 1800s mind you) described a system of wireless connectivity with telephone calls, music, stock markets, news, and messages in text.
So why did we not have a 4G network until 2010? Tesla was unable to secure the funding for his discoveries. He got some money from JP Morgan to look into this, but it was decided to be cost ineffective. Can you imagine what kind of undeveloped theories we are not exploring because we deem them not "cost effective?" Does capitalism always lead to the best technologies (because in this case, I would argue that it didn't)?
That is a god point Sam, and I believe capitalism always leads to discovering the best marketed ideas. Just like you said, Edison was a businessman, and that is why he was able to get and keep money flowing in. Without it, he would have been just like Tesla. However, there can be exceptions due to human passion and hard work. Look at the Wright Brothers, they paid for their dream of flight with their bicycle shop, and yet they still achieved it first. Now compare this to Simon Pierpont Langley, who has mounds of endorsements, best minds of the time, and did not achieve his goal. But these are exceptions to the people that achieve these things, because the idea of a "heavier than air" aircraft was a phenomenon of the time.
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