There's a tax credit in Canada called the "Scientific Research and
Experimental Development" credit. Specifically excluded from eligibility
are expenditures for research in the social sciences. The assumptions
underlying the credit are blatantly neo-classical economics. The implicit
definition of "technology" is screamingly ideological (no explicit
definition is given in the glossary). In other words, "technology" is
something that exists apart from any labour process. Environmental
protection and workplace health and safety are also explicitly excluded as
eligible areas of "scientific research".
What does it say about the self-confidence of the hegemon when it has to
resort to such extremes of exclusion?
Tom Walker
