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Why We Need Government Funding For R&D

calamity

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It's so simple, even a Libertarian should understand. However, they need to give up the Dogma that government should get out of the way of innovation and embrace the reality that Government paves the way for innovation.

Without government funding, very few ideas get off the ground. Not even the iPhone would be around today were it not for your Tax dollars kicking it off.

'The Entrepreneurial State': Apple Didn't Build Your iPhone; Your Taxes Did | The Business Desk with Paul Solman | PBS NewsHour | PBS

 

government backed innovation wasn't first for public consumption but for military use. It was the public that picked and chosen what innovation was profitable for public consumption and adapted the innovation for just that
the market dictated profitable innovation not government
 
I heard a lot of scientists want to leave America, because of the lack of funds.. That is pretty bad. And we even complain about a national shortage of scientists.
 
So basically the point of the OP is that government spending causes dependence on that spending. Yes, government made itself the key cog in the machine of innovation and as you would expect most innovations come from government subsidy. Surprise? I bet no one ever said that would happen? Oh right, they did. Go figure. The best part is the problem basically feeds itself and gets worse as time goes on, but then, that is usually how government works, isn't it? :lol:

I find it pretty funny that the same people raging against corporate welfare support government subsidized innovation. :lamo Hint: They're the same thing.
 
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SheWolf said:
I heard a lot of scientists want to leave America, because of the lack of funds.. That is pretty bad. And we even complain about a national shortage of scientists.
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Yes, countries from around the world subsidize innovation and provide scientists with work and resources.
 
Henrin said:
Yes, countries from around the world subsidize innovation and provide scientists with work and resources.
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great inventers like Thomas Edison, Wright brothers, Nikola Tesla, Guglielmo Marconi didn't not receive government funding their motivating was profit now they sold some of their inventions to government. Government funding is not required for innovation
 
SheWolf said:
I heard a lot of scientists want to leave America, because of the lack of funds.. That is pretty bad. And we even complain about a national shortage of scientists.
Click to expand...

Good. If their research can't be profitable, let it be done elsewhere. I don't want any more of my money being sent to people like my sister-in-law to play with fruit flies for the last decade.
 

Neither putting men on the Moon nor the Internet were examples of government funding of private R&D. Neither is GPS, neither was voice-activation. (Not sure about the development of touch screens; GM first implemented them in Buicks in 1988.) Those were all technologies developed by the government for government purposes, which -- uh oh -- trickled down to the private sector.
 
Putting men on the moon wasn't an example of government funding...what?
 
Harshaw said:
Read what I said:
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Really? I suggest you read up on that.
Saturn V - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What exactly do you call lead contractors?
 
Harshaw said:
Government contractors doing government work. Not recipients of R&D grants for their own work.

("Read up on that," indeed. Few who weren't involved in it know more about Project Apollo than I do.)
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Times have changed. We now give block grants to private enterprise instead of doing the work on governments behalf. The latter has been deemed to be socialism.
 
calamity said:
Times have changed. We now give block grants to private enterprise instead of doing the work on governments behalf. The latter has been deemed to be socialism.
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Even if true, it has zero bearing on anything I said. I suppose this is where you abandon your own OP again.
 
Harshaw said:
Even if true, it has zero bearing on anything I said. I suppose this is where you abandon your own OP again.
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No. Gvt funding for new and radical ideas is essential. I abandon nothing. I reject your argument that gvt did not fund the R&D behind the moon launch.
 
Step 1: Steal the profits from companies so that they cannot afford to do any research or development.
Step 2: Show artificial interest in R&D by giving a small percentage of those taxes back as grants.
Step 3: Get the ignorant lemmings to believe that without Government, R&D wouldn't exist.

I ain't falling for it.
 
calamity said:
No. Gvt funding for new and radical ideas is essential. I abandon nothing. I reject your argument that gvt did not fund the R&D behind the moon launch.
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I reject any notion that you understand plain English, then, because I never said they didn't. What I DID say is plain enough to anyone with a fourth grade reading level.

Your OP gives examples of government funding of its own programs to bolster the idea of government being essential for private R&D. If you can't see how that's a conceptual problem for its premise, I can't help you.
 

Similar to busting up horizontal trusts and then claiming that without government, businesses couldn't survive. Example: car companies "can't" build roads for their cars to drive on. Indeed they could, only it would be illegal under anti-trust law.
 

Wow. You really love you some government.
 
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