The battle America should also be fighting

[duvinnie]

some food for thought from Friedman, Intel boss

I was just out in Silicon Valley, checking in with high-tech entrepreneurs about the state of their business. I wouldn’t say they were universally gloomy, but I did detect something I hadn’t detected before: a real undertow of concern that America is losing its competitive edge, vis-a-vis China, India, Japan and other Asian tigers, and that the Bush team is deaf, dumb and blind to this situation.

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=30679&headline=Fear~grips~Silicon~Valley~over~India%E2%80%99s~high-tech~entrepreneurs#compstory

[FreakinDJ]

1. Sorry..... but you just now caught on to this

I watched as the techs began closing doors to R&D and capitol investment right about the time Bush's poll numbers started to come up in Aug of 2000

I heard at one point the big 3 Intel, Cisco Systems, and Microsoft were holding investment capitol (80 million) not wanting to spend it in the current political climate (re: Bush)

[duvinnie]

2. more to the point

Friedman types have just now caught on to it.

Besides the obvious issues he raises, the novel point was
that homeland security seems to have effectively sealed off
our borders to legitimate techie types who once came
here to start the next Sun or run the next AMD.

I personally know of some very, very talented Asians who got
tired of waiting for a US visa and decided to go to Japan and
elsewhere to start their careers.

But its funny that Friedman blames the lowering of the American
image abroad on the DHS.

[buddy22600]

3. bush is killing us

[jhewitt]

4. myopia

Another excellent analysis coupled with a short-sighted solution. The government should not sponsor a "Manhattan Project" for hydrogen fuel. Instead, they should stop giving favors to the autombile and petroleum industries, and let hydrogen fuel develop on its own timeline.

If there is really a need for hydrogen fuel, a lot of Americans (and foreigners) stand to make an obscene fortune developing it. There is no reason why scientists and entrepreneurs will not develop this technology when it is needed, unless they were discouraged by government regulation.

As is always the rule with government, they want to regulate hydrogen to support the growth of the state and its future revenue. To achieve this, they make deals with the big auto and petroleum companies to protect them from being put out of business by the inevitable flood of hydrogen energy startups. Who is the big loser? The consumer, who will pay higher prices for lower quality goods from the fat and happy auto and energy companies.

I applaud the readers of this forum for seeing the evil that pervades American corporations today. Now is an excellent time to use that same line of reasoning to uncover the evil inherent in the proposed state-driven solutions.

[idlisambar]

5. deeply skeptical of your assessment

The government should not sponsor a "Manhattan Project" for hydrogen fuel. Instead, they should stop giving favors to the autombile and petroleum industries, and let hydrogen fuel develop on its own timeline.

If there is really a need for hydrogen fuel, a lot of Americans (and foreigners) stand to make an obscene fortune developing it. There is no reason why scientists and entrepreneurs will not develop this technology when it is needed, unless they were discouraged by government regulation.

Are you advocating leaving the fate of research in hydrogen technologies completely in the hands of entrepreneurs? This does not seem wise, as private investors do not tend to invest in basic research because of the uncertainty of the return, and as in this case, the costs involved are prohibitive. Cases of corruption and misplaced priorities granted, it is hard to think of too many technologies (and technology based industries) that were developed in the modern era without the aid of public investment. It seems to me that the idea that entrepreneurs are able to match public investment in basic research is an article of faith without strong empirical grounding.

If you permit me to generalize based on your statements, you seem to distrust prominent institutions (government,corporations) while placing ultimate trust in the market and the individual entrepreneur. Is there room in your worldview for collective action at the scale of an entire society to meet common problems? What form would that take?

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[Centre_Left]

6. I won't lose any sleep

It's very difficult for me to feel pity for Silicon Valley firms. Their whiny, self-serving lobbying in the 80s forced FASB to abandon proposed rules requiring companies to expense stock options at their fair value.