Aestu wrote:
You're resorting to supposition and willful fallacy. The very article you cited provided the hard counter to this argument: those bulbs are produced abroad with lower environmental and labor costs.
What do you think is going to happen when those $50 bulbs go on the market? They're going to have to compete with bulbs that have a lower price-point because they're produced with lower costs. Who is going to buy a $50 bulb when they can get an equivalent bulb for 1/3-1/2 the price? We've tossed away $10 million and what have we received in exchange? A new technology? No, because the technology already exists (and was developed by the private sector). An affordable bulb? No, because even if you do factor intangibles like 3rd world labor and China and India polluting the shit out of themselves, the people who will buy the $50 bulb over a $35 bulb are in the minority. This is just more corporate welfare, and it's completely unnecessary. That's not even taking into consideration all the recent failures of government picking winners and loser, like the Solyndra debacle.
Aestu wrote:
Government gave us stable infrastructure to power appliances, a highway system to run cars on, and the Internet.
If the highway and power system did not exist we would still live like third-worlders who don't have those things and somehow don't see "personal initiative" translate into their spontaneous creation.
Unless you live somewhere that reaped the benefits of the TVA, the government is likely less responsible for your access to power than private business. 'Post roads,' which have morphed into our federal highway system, are a role for which government is supposed to be responsible, according to the Constitution. This isn't an argument that the government has no role to play. This is an argument that when the government moves beyond those roles it does damage. Just because government does perform adequately the responsibilities delegated to it does not mean that we should start tossing more and more power and responsibility at it just to see what works, especially when we never admit when something doesn't work and take it out of the hands of government when we finally realize there are some things it either cannot do or cannot do well.
Aestu wrote:
Neither I nor anyone else is saying that private industry is total shit and can't do anything right or that we should go to a planned economy. I'm just saying that, like it or not, govt sets the conditions for success - always, throughout history. Private industry is good at making consumer products and capitalizing on opportunity but sometimes the government needs to give things a bit of a push. And, sad to say, sometimes, proactive government actually works.
I don't think anyone is saying that government is the root of all evil that can do nothing right, as well, but there are necessary limits to what government can and should do. Government doesn't need to push, all it needs to do is grease the skids by remaining efficient in the pursuit of its legitimate duties, providing security from foreign threats and domestic crime, including fraud, and providing the framework for civil litigation. Our present system is plagued by excessive regulation (not all regulation is excessive), regulation that encourages, if not rewards bad actors, a back-breaking tax code that is so complex that even the agency set up to oversee it can't consistently interpret it, and cronyism.
Aestu wrote:
Jubbergun wrote:
Let the private sector invest in emerging technologies, and let the investors absorb the losses or reap the profit. Squandering public funds on unproven technology will only serve to waste funds and displace better emerging technologies.
Except they're not doing it. Bam.
Who are "they?" If by "they," you mean the government, then "BAM," is an appropriate expletive, because they're blowing holes in the economy every time they do something like this. If, however, you mean the private sector when you say "they," clearly you're wrong, especially in this case, where the technology in question had already been developed.
Your Pal,
Jubber
