From: utzoo!dciem!mmt Newsgroups: net.politics Title: Re: Roots are still rotten Article-I.D.: dciem.196 Posted: Sat Feb 26 19:22:27 1983 Received: Sat Feb 26 19:40:31 1983 References: houti.218 Various contributors to this quasi-religious discussion suggest that we look at the results of capitalism and socialism. Perhaps it would be a good idea to do that, in respect of countries where the two kinds of government alternate. From my reading of the situation, Conservatives get in, ruin the economy, and then lose an election to the Socialists, who are shot at by all the businessmen until they sort out the economy and are then replaced by the Conservatives at an election, to start the cycle over again. More seriously, there are many overriding factors beyond type of government that determine a country's economic health. Fifty percent of the variance is determined by the amount of money invested in research, for example. That means that all other factors COMBINED cannot have any greater effect than the amount invested in research. Why was the US so successful after WWII? I guess it was not because of Capitalism, but because of all the scientists evicted from Europe by Hitler, or who came to assist in the research effort against Hitler. Why is the US now declining? Because Nixon started to cut back on research funding, and Carter was unable to bring it back up as he had proposed. What will happen now? Abrupt decline because Reagan is cutting back even more. It isn't Capitalism. There is no real incentive for a small company to invest in research, because no-one knows where the real benefits will appear. The more basic the research, the longer the gamble and the more dramatic the results when it pans out. Government has to support basic research, large companies can afford mission-oriented research, and small companies can afford development. Of course, small companies that do buck the odds successfully and win from basic research get to be big companies quite quickly, but they were probably naive and lucky. Basic research benefits us all. Development benefits whoever does it. Martin Taylor