I fully agree. There are many factors involved in this decision: how many jobs are at stake? how beneficial is the technology we're holding back for the populat

I fully agree. There are many factors involved in this decision: how many jobs are at stake? how beneficial is the technology we're holding back for the population at large? how environmentally damaging is the old industry? how many new jobs can we eventually expect from the new technology? etc. Note that I did not claim that protectionism should be the default policy. My only claim is: it would be silly for a government to refuse to consider protectionist solutions to certain problems, simply because capitalist dogma says it shouldn't.