I got the rightie message. The government should get out of the way, whatever the **** that means, and let the almighty entreprenuers shift the supply curve through a technological innovation.
I don't think that the "rightie message," that's my message and I am fiscally on the right side of the aisle. If you'd like to discuss specifics of how I think the government should get out of the way, I'd be happy to explain "whatever the **** that means."
Don't knock what you don't understand, especially while you're staring at this:
Those were the predictions by the current group in charge, not mine. Correct me if I 'm wrong, but I think there's a good chance you supported the policies behind those predictions and thought things would turn out that way. Again, correct me if I'm wrong since I wasn't on this board then.
Would you like to discuss some ideas to bridge this chasm that's about to open? I'm all ears to see how your worldview and my worldview can coexist to move things forward. God knows the current idiots in charge can't do it.
What if no earth shattering innovation comes? What then? What if you can't really plan on these, they just happen from time to time?
If none of that is predictable then I guess we should focus on sustainability. Some focus on sustainability would be a good thing anyway, since the current national savings rate is far below what I think it should be.
How the **** could government interfer with innovation anyway?
By sticking a bureaucrat between a new idea the execution of that new idea. Businesses should be free to open and operate based on a set of rules and codes, not "mother may I?" structures. I can't start a solar panel manufacturing plant or a car wash without first asking for permission. The problem is that when there's a limiting control factor (like a bureaucrat who can deny water permits to new car washes or new manufacturing plants) there is more than just the regulations and standards that are enacted by the elected representatives. Personal agendas and fiefdoms complicate things. Ergo, no new car washes and no efficient solar panel manufacturers.
Many in the government have tried to foster such innovation, but solar panels are still too expensive and needlessly so. We can discuss that further if you actually want to do so.
Seems to me they ******* spend more on R&D than anyone!
Sure they do. But spending money on R&D is not the same as conducting actual useful R&D. Take the Internet, a wonderful product of a Defense project. Had it been created for the purpose of changing the entire means by which financial transactions occur, that would be a success of government R&D. But it wasn't, it was created to allow communication in the event of a nuclear holocaust. Still a very valid and noble goal, certainly worth the investment. The problem comes when someone develops a new way to transmit and receive faxes using the airwaves instead of the old POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) and gets a government R&D grant for it in the hopes that this will be a groundbreaking innovation with non-defense applications and then abandons the innovation but still has the contract to deploy these over the air fax machines to battlefield units, standalone units that aren't compatible with the existing POTS or the newer PSTN interfaces.
The government is good at finding a need and the moving mountains to fill that need. They aren't good at predicting what is going to happen and spending the millions or billions to fill it because in while they were busy working on the over the air fax machine, someone else figured out a way to hook a standard fax machine up to a cell phone while someone else figured out how to make a box that modulates a dialtone so a standard fax machine can be used regardless of the transmission method.
Not tethered to reality. That's why wingnuts are so frustrating. They simply have no repsect or regard for the real world.
I get it, you're frustrated. I've been frustrated for quite some time now. I don't think the GOP has all or even the majority of the answers. I'm quite confident you don't either. I don't think the Democrats have all the answers either. I think there are too many people who have stopped participating the the process.
Care to see if we can get them involved?