From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Sun May 06 2007 - 09:58:31 EDT
> The weight of the proof is over the shoulders of those who claim able > to speed up the technological progress in a market-less economy. Hi Alejandro: You seem to be assuming that technological breakthroughs have had their origin in initiatives undertaken by firms in private markets. This is a classical vision of technological change which doesn't fit in very well with recent economic history, especially the period from World War II to the present. Consider the following technological breakthroughs: - jet transportation - nuclear power - space-related technologies, such as rockets and satellites - radar - GPS - computers and computer-related technologies including the Internet (NB: this is just a short list -- we could easily add on to it if we wished.) All of the above were initiatives undertaken by the *state*, especially and primarily for *military* purposes. While there was a partnership between capital and the state in most of these cases, the *initiative* and the *funding* came from the state. Without legal provisos like cost- plus government contracts, firms would not have entered into that partnership. In solidarity, Jerry
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