BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - Does the private sector create wealth anymore?

jps

On Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:35:34 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:13:31 -0500, Harry
wrote:

The government may have contracted out the internet, integrated
circuits and Tang but it was a private corporation that actually
figured out how to make consumer products that turned them into
wealth.
On the other hand if you look at the human genome project you will see
the NIH duncing around with this for 10 years and $3 billion dollars
with no real progress and a private company breaking the code in 24
months at a tenth the cost.

The government may spur innovation but they do not translate that into
wealth by promoting it.

We're talking basic research here...not products for sale.

There is plenty of research going on at Intel, IBM and the various
phone/PDA/gaming companies that translate into wealth.
That is one of the few bright spots in America's wealth building
industries even though most of the manufacturing is in Asia.
The companies in silicon valley are still searching for the holy grail
of a photo voltaic cell that makes economic sense over it's life.

So, even with a profit motive, those breakthroughs (as well as
regrowing hair) remain elusive. That does argue against enterprise
being the better of the research arms. If profit isn't within reach,
an enterprise may choose to curtail development whereas a government
funded research effort is more likely to be driven by academic
acheivement and treat products as a by-product.