Trump / FBI / Russians

WHAT??!!??
I thought Al Gore invented the Internet??!!??
HE SAID SO!!!!! Did too!!!! Nyah Nyah!!!!!

 

Al gore invented global warming silly

 

But yet we buy it all up.

 

90% of the product I sell is manufactured in China. The cost how gone up a lot over the last ten years. Freight has gone up. Wages have gone up. Materials have gone up...
If it keeps going up eventually it will not be cost effective.

 

I thought you were talking about how innovative the Chinese are?

 

How do you define "major shifts in technology?"
Apparently, your definition applies only when it comes to the stuff that govt has pumped.

"Major shifts in technology:"
How about the automobile?
How about manned flight?
How about railroads?
How about electricity?
How about the development of weaponry through the ages?
How about trans-oceanic shipping & the race to build faster & better sailing ships?

Govt may have danced in & out of some of these aspects over the years. Bear in mind, though, that govt's role has historically been that of regulator of the private sector. Not innovator.

There is absolutely no question that the vast majority of "major shifts in technology" to utilize your phrase are developed & derived from private sector, inventors unaffiliated with the govt & corporations.

Many US govt websites even say as much:

'The Civil War gave impetus to many new industries on a scale never before seen in America. What was needed was a new way to fund them. The corporation solved the problem. Corporations are legal entities chartered by state governments. To establish a corporation, money is raised from many investors.'

 

So we have to go back over 100 years to make your argument Things have changed a bit since Henry Ford and the Wright Bros.

Most of those industries listed haven't innovated at all in the past 50 years. And as far as weaponry, well I think we all know who is paying for the innovation there....

So by this logic, the government should have stayed out of assisting with the creation of the internet? Where would we go to call each other morons then?!?!?

 

Oh, geeeezzzz....silly me!

 

We're talking about how it's a good idea to foster innovation here on our shores, and that if we don't do it, somebody else will.

 

No waffling allowed sigourney - - you're all for the guvmint "fostering innovation" - - and that's just not a sound idea. In fact, it's a bit of an oxymoron.

 

Isn’t the “free market” what fosters innovation? Weird Tesla has had such a hard time hitting those targets for production while receiving substantial government subsidies. Time will tell how it plays out.

 

I agree with you to some extent, but government research grants have helped foster many of the technologies that you mentioned over the years, not to mention the vast amount of research that occurs at publicly funded universities. The private sector is great at running with a new technology where there is the prospect of near to mid-term profit, but not so great when risk is high, costs are high, and the potential pay-off is in the distant future. This is where gov can and does play a role to help fund research until hopefully it becomes economically viable, then step back and let the free market take over.