a fortune in the early 1900s. Our family never saw the depression,
mostly because the government gave us so much money during that time to
keep the railroad companies afloat.
M
-----Original Message-----
From: Larry C. Lyons [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 10:57 AM
To: CF-Community
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
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