Government, and Air Flight

[PoliticalChic]

1. Milton Friedman asked, “Who makes the decisions?” Well, in some cases, the government:
   1. The only entity capable of serving and protecting individual liberty, as in defense.
   2. The administration of justice.
   3. The maintenance and oversight of federal infrastructure: roads, waterways, parks, etc.

But, where to draw the line? Surely, unless one is an inveterate socialist/Progressive, government is not the solution to every question or problem facing society.


2. How about the question of air flight, certainly a benefit to modern life....how successful was government in the development of this endeavor?

Where would the invention of the airplane be without the input of government? What better reason for government taking a role in the private economy than the invention airplanes?

Sort of.....


3. On May 6, 1896, Samuel Langley launched is miniature plane, the "aerodrome." And Alexander Graham Bell was right there to take a photo of the inaugural flight. He went on with another successful test in November of '96. "I believe that the results already accomplished...make it as nearly certain as any untried thing can be, that with a larger machine of the same model, to a carry a man, or men....flight could be maintained for at least some hours."
Russell J. Parkinson, "Politics, Patents, and Planes," (Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 1963),p. 178-179





4.Now, the search for the cash to build it! But Langley was not in favor of "commercial strife," and on February 15, 1898, when the USS Maine blew up in Havana harbor...he pitched the idea to the government as having military value.

5. Believe it or not....the government hesitated! Having been burned via the subsidies to the Union Pacific Railroad, and the same to the Collins steamship line, politicians actually had doubts about government's ability to pick winners and losers with federal aid.

If only that were true today!


a. " When government tries to pick winners and losers, the inevitable consequence is corruption. Yes, corruption. If not in a legal sense, certainly in a moral sense.... the Solyndra deal. .... Something obviously smells rotten when $500 million in loan guarantees go to a single business with clear political connections. "
Government Picking Winners and Losers Corruption Gary Johnson


b. " The inexcusable failure of intellect of the Liberal is in attributing to bureaucrats the talents of wisdom, patience and the capability of all discernment, when history has never indicated same. Where, one should ask, were officials actually able to determine solutions the ancient and heretofore ineradicable problems of unfairness, poverty, greed and envy?"
David Mamet, "The Secret Knowledge."

 

[PoliticalChic]

6. But...."Perhaps this was the moment in history when a strategic federal gift would foster the invention to value the United States into military dominance in the world." Folsom and Folsom, "Uncle Sam Can't Count," p. 120-121. Federal cash started flowing.


7. In Dayton, Ohio, a pair of bicycle mechanics has ideas of their own, based on gliding as a prerequisite to mechanical flight: Langley stressed engine power. But there was another difference in the views of the Wright brothers...he wanted to invent the airplane to make a profit.

And he used his own money.


a. " In the free market, if a product or service does not please, it is discontinued. Compare that to government persistence and expansion of programs that proven to have failed decades ago: farm subsidies, aid to Africa, busing, etc.

In the free market, every man, woman and child is scheming to find a better way to make a product or service that will make a fortune!"
David Mamet, "The Secret Knowledge."


b. Will Wright wrote his father: "While I am taking up the investigation [of flight] for pleasure rather than profit, I think there is a slight possibility of achieving fame and fortune from it."

 

[PoliticalChic]

8. Octave Chanute, railway engineer and aviation pioneer, became aware of the work of the Wright's, and asked them "if some rich man should give you $10,000 a year to go on, to connect his name with the progress, would you do so? I happen to know Carnegie. Would you like for me to write him?" James Tobin, "
To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight ," p.129-130

Will: "I do not think it would be wise for me to accept help in carrying our present investigations further...."




9. Langley was falling further behind in his contracts with the Department of War, and he tried to visit the Wrights, and offered to bring them to Washington. They politely declined.

Need I expound on the lesson to be learned vis-a-vis federal dabbling in the free market?


a. "Beware of the Good Intentions of Government by the Left, for it removes competition from the free market. It knows what is best…and is intent on taking from the consumer the freedom to choose between competing enterprises. And what is Freedom by the freedom to choose?"
Mamet, Op. Cit.

 

[PoliticalChic]

10. October 7, 1903, Langley catapulted his airplane into the air over the Potomac. It plunged nose first into the water. The Washington Post said "any stout boy of fifteen...could have skimmee an oyuseter shell much farther, and that without months of expensive preparation or...government fleets, appliances and retinues."
Washington Post, October 8, 1903



11. He tried again: no luck.
"The destruction of Langley's machine should put an end to Congressional appropriations of any kind in every field of experiments which properly belongs to private enterprise....The reward which will surely follow the production of a practical airship is s sufficient stimulus in itself to private competition."
San Francisco Chronicle, December 10, 1903, p. 6.

And that is the finest endorsement of the free market!!




What seems to be the difference between those working for the government, and those working for themselves?


Milton Friedman suggested we all recognize as a joke the notion that someone might say to a government employee, “Slow down, you’re killing yourself…”

 

[RoshawnMarkwees]

And don't forget that government needs to steal money from the free market in order to implement their failures.

 

[PoliticalChic]

And don't forget that government needs to steal money from the free market in order to implement their failures.

12. And, the point of this essay.....even with government imprimatur, and those funds you mention...

Working in obscurity, without federal government funding.....

"On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. "
The Wright Brothers



Langley requested, but didn't get further subsidies. One congressman said: "You can tell Langley from me that the only thing he ever made fly was government money."

Our heroes: "We have not thought of asking financial assistance from the government...We propose to sell the results of experiments finished at our own expense."
Wright brothers.



13. "In the free market, every man, woman and child is scheming to find a better way to make a product or service that will make a fortune!

Who are the individuals who respond to “Hope”? That is very different from terms such as save, work, cooperate, sacrifice, think.
It means “Hope for the best in a process over which you have no control.”
Mamet



And, a government determined to pick the winners and losers:
US National Debt: $18 trillion and counting....
U.S. National Debt Clock Real Time

 

[Moonglow]

Oh look, the history of using the toilet can be attributed to govt. intervention, war and private enterprise in a Polivinylchic thread...

 

[PoliticalChic]

Oh look, the history of using the toilet can be attributed to govt. intervention, war and private enterprise in a Polivinylchic thread...

Now....see:

So much of your time spent in posting inept, vapid, uninspired posts.....now you can't break the habit.


Too bad.

 

[Old Rocks]

Christ on a crutch, do you honestly think anyone is going to read all that twaddle, PoliticalShit?!