Tuesday, January 24, 2012

the most significant "free market" products money can buy are usually historically the product of government-funded R&D.

A little boring unless you are a curious type who can recognize a good one about hired mind-slingers who won't tell you that the most significant "free market" products money can buy are usually historically the product of government-funded R&D.


Conservative Fantasies about the miracles of the Market.



A central doctrine of evangelicals for the “free market” is its capacity for innovation: New ideas, new technologies, new gadgets -- all flow not from governments but from individuals and businesses allowed to flourish in the market, we are told. 
That’s the claim made in a recent op/ed in our local paper by policy analyst Josiah Neeley of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think-tank in Austin. His conclusion: “Throughout history, technological advances have been driven by private investment, not by government fiat. There is no reason to expect that to change anytime soon.” 
Cheap Energy Comes When Market Rules
As is often the case in faith-based systems, reconciling doctrine to the facts of history can be tricky. When I read Neeley’s piece, I immediately thought of the long list of modern technological innovations that came directly from government-directed and -financed projects, most notably containerization, satellites, computers, and the Internet. The initial research-and-development for all these projects so central to the modern economy came from the government, often through the military, long before they were commercially viable. It’s true that individuals and businesses often used those innovations to create products and services for the market, but without the foundational research funded by government, none of those products and services could exist.

And this opinion too: Free-Market Socialism 


And Five Republican Lies About Income Inequality.

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