Good thought. Wish that I had thought it. One of the highest return government programs ever was Kennedy's race to the moon. A masterful stroke of politics. The technology that was developed for that program allowed American businesses a great leap forward for a whole generation.
It's not manufacturing. *I'm thinking more investment, paricularly high risk/high capital investment. *
International highway system, funding basic research, Hubble telescope, transcontinental railroad, US postal service, The Great Pyramids, that sort of thing. *
I have the impression that legitimate business leaders understand and support the partnership between government and business that has made America great. Of course their necessary alligiance to, make more money regardless of the cost to others, still requires them to whine about regulations that impact them, but good leaders understand that regulations typically impact both them and their competitors, so are not a competitive disadvantage.*
Our problem really comes from substandard business owners who think that they are entitled to business success at our expense.
They are part of creating those regulations, at least the big companies are. *Congressional commitees try to make as many as they can part of the process. Given the restriction of either accounting for one big company or a thousand small ones, I'm sure they pick the big one.
Engineering and manufacturing standardization has always been a semi-cooperative struggle. *Everyone whines about things in the beginning, especially as it is being written. *The whining gets lost in the annals of time. *Eventually, no one gives a second thought to nuts and screws all fitting together.
**Some most recent standards are for communications, like JPEG image compression. *The big market players, like Sony, are on the panel that designs the spec.*
*They do it so that the market is more efficient, they reduce costs, increase quality, increase availabiliy of components, increase adaptability, and in the end, increase sales. *Increased sales is increased consumer satisfaction. *Their market power and resources get them on the panel. *Being on the panel gets them more of what they want. And they known that they see far more sales when a Toshiba DVD player fits a Sony TV then if consumers had to buy matching components.
Standardization then opens up opportunities for small businesses like small manufacturing facilities that can design and produce their own applications without having to design every part. *
The internet protocols was a joint effort between Congress and private industry. *And small manufacturing saw huge gains in ease of procurement.
The Federal Reserve is the result of gov't and the private banks. *(The money supply, by the way, is a common good. Monetary problems are a tragedy of the commons. The paradox of thrift is a tragedy of commons.)
Genentek is a spinoff of university research. Genentek is a huge supporter of the statistics department at UC East Bay. UC East Bay is part of the California University System.
The ACA was a joint effort between insurance, healthcare providers and the gov't.
Apparently we will see private industry spinoffs in the space program. Obviously, the space station is a laboratory for basic research experiments for universities and private industry. The logistic support is being taken up by private partners. Nasa is now moving focus away from Earth orbit to L2, Lagrange Point 2, a gravitational neutral spot beyond the moons orbit.
Fishing companies support fishing regulations. *
Low flush toilets piss off owners with shitty pipes. *New building owners love them. I live in a place with a regular toilet and it still clogs. Then again, I'm like Curly from City Slickers, I crap bigger than anyone else.
I'm sure we could get a substantial thread out of just detailing the symbiotic relationships between*gov't, commerce, universities, and consumers.
It's all in the "and", not in the "or". *It's ying AND yang. *The Chinese philosophers figured this out before Christ was even born.
