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Simply because something was invented to satisfy a government contract does not mean that it would never have been invented otherwise. Government spending simpl
by clarkmoody 10y ago
Simply because something was invented to satisfy a government contract does not mean that it would never have been invented otherwise. Government spending simply shifts the preferences of goods arbitrarily away from what would have arisen through market processes.
The government has been hiring the bulk of PhD-level researchers for the purposes of war (and surveillance). Imagine what those minds would have done with their ingenuity and initiative in the private sector the last 70 years.
One of the few things that probably would never have been created by the private sector is nuclear weapons, since there is no profitable use of such devices.
- Turing_Machine 10y ago"...probably would never have been created by the private sector is nuclear weapons, since there is no profitable use of such devices." As of now, maybe. They're going to be quite useful once we get around to asteroid mining.
- msandford 10y agoNow that the cold war is over, it seems that everyone is working to make people click on ads. I'm not sure it's much of an improvement.
- clarkmoody 10y agoSingle data point: in my field of aerospace engineering, many of my colleagues are going to government labs and aerospace contractors.
- msandford 10y agoSure, that's fine. But that's not those folks being unleashed and creating things even more amazing than the space program and such. Which is what clarkmoody was suggesting would have happened had the big bad government not sucked up all the smart people and set them to work on bombs, etc.