I understand your point of view, Tim, I even have a lot of agreements with it. But the fact is that it's idealistic. Reality dictates that we do things like mandate minimum wages because it holds society to higher standards than it would be otherwise.
- Matt Small
From: Larry C. Lyons
To: CF-Community
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 10:56 AM
Subject: RE: More Breaking News
At 10:20 AM 1/7/2004, you wrote:
>While I know that government research, mainly defense based, is in large
>part responsible for great technological advances, this is not necessarily
>always the case. Xerox, IBM and Microsoft, all private companies, had a lot
>to do with getting us where we are today. A few generations ago it would
>have been Ford, GM and Dodge. Before that the railroads. Private industry
>is and always will be where the greatest and most powerful innovation comes
>from.
>
You may want to look at the subsidies that the first railroads got from
both state and the federal governments. Similarly the roads and canals also
received substantial support from the governments at the time. Moreover
couldn't you consider tariffs and outright bans on the importation of
certain goods to be a form of subsidy? Again that was a very popular tactic
used by the federal government in the 19th century. Again, look at how land
concessions and rights of way were used by the government to support rail
development.
Saying that the early roads, railways and canals developed without
government support is simply incorrect. If anything compared to current
conditions, the administrations of the 19th century were much more willing
to intervene in the economy than more recent regemes.
larry
[Todays Threads] [This Message] [Subscription] [Fast Unsubscribe] [User Settings]
