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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: forceOfHabit who wrote (99657)	11/12/2008 12:36:03 PM
From: Hawkmoon	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Well, duh. No one was going to build the planes and give them to the government for free I think you entirely missed the point. The point is that free-marketers don't normally believe the government should "create demand" for a good or service. They argue that private demand should dictate what is supplied by the economy. But it's VERY CLEAR that sometimes government demand, even if a vision like Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon, can create tremendous synergies and technologica offshoots that create entirely new industries and private opportunities. Without that government demand it's likely private industry would have taken a path where profits were maximized, markets monopolized, and R&D and innovation minimized and many of these technologies would not exist. That's where centralized government economic power can prove decisive in creating "Manhattan Projects" for new and innovative technology to drive economic growth. And working within that governmental demand, the private industry can compete to provide the best and most efficient solution. Under a purely capitalist model, these grand vision projects would not occur unless it benefitted the corporation and its shareholders. Projects like the national interstate system would be a mish-mash of private toll roads. Some parts of these country would be operating on DC current, while others operate on AC. Hoover Dam would not have been built, depriving much of the SW of water and power. And, of course, there would be no internet. So all I'm saying is that there is a place for government intervention. But when it does intervene, I believe that it should do it on a grand scale and in a fashion that generates long-term value and innovation. I think many of think it's high-time to use that governmental power to create demand to deal with the problem of imported energy, which accounts for much of our total trade deficit and ties our national security to corrupt and unstable Middle Eastern oil producers. Hawk