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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: Steve Lokness who wrote (125226)11/20/2009 10:57:35 PM
From: slacker711  Read Replies (2) of 543755
 
and provide incentives for tomorrows new technology and industries?

The reason is that the government so often gets it wrong when it comes to picking winners and has a huge amount of difficulty shifting course. There is a difference between subsidizing steel or auto production and trying to figure out what next gen tech is going to take over the world. The Japanese were subsidizing things like robotics in the late 80's and early 90's....just about when the internet was ready to revamp the world.

and yes, I know that the internet came out of DARPA. However, there is a big difference between subsidizing basic research and subsidizing industries. I gave the example before, but both Japan and China have thrown tens of billions down the drain because they chose the wrong mobile standards to support. China may end up spending a hundred billion on wind farms only to find out that solar power was the better solution (or something completely out of left field).

Slacker
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