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I think your list overstates the contribution of the private sector in many of those inventions. For example, the (semiconductor) transistor was patented elsewh
by foobarqux 12y ago
I think your list overstates the contribution of the private sector in many of those inventions. For example, the (semiconductor) transistor was patented elsewhere before IBM invented the way to produce it. OOP existed before Xerox Smalltalk.
And while C and UNIX are widely used I don't think they were extremely innovative; they were instances of a class, not a new class itself.
Finally, it is not clear how much state support was given to these labs. At least today, Xerox Parc gets 1/3 of its funding from the government.
- rayiner 12y agoI don't think the involvement of the state negates the point. The U.S. government is the ultimate monopolist: almost totally insulated from competition. My suspicion is that the R&D sector in the U.S. has evolved into a highly-suitable structure for invention: a broad mix of government subsidy, large corporate monopolies, and small R&D firms.
- foobarqux 12y agoIf the argument is that companies start research labs because of excess profits then that would be negated by the fact that those labs are largely funded by the government. And the government is clearly sui generis, you can't compare it to private industry monopolies.
- rayiner 12y agoI don't think either AT&T nor Xerox PARC were ever "largely funded" by the government.