  |
|
|
|
John McCain Is Wrong on TechnologyMcCain Relies on Companies When He Shouldn'tRepublican John McCain thinks private companies will lead the way on the next generation of technological breakthroughs. They won't.
The days of private research laboratories like Bell Labs, where scientists were free to develop and test their theories without fear of failure or corporate interference, are long gone. Global competition and Wall Street's obsession with "the next quarter" make corporate research project driven and short term. The Internet, lasers and global positioning may still be on dusty old drawing boards if the ideas that formed their genesis were proffered today. McCain's Technology PolicyYet, Senator McCain, the Republican candidate for President of the United States, bases his technology policy almost solely on the ability of the private sector to address long term challenges. His plan includes numerous tax breaks for corporations including reductions in capital gains, corporate tax rates and taxes on new equipment. All are reasonable ideas if your goal is solely to encourage companies to locate facilities in the United States. But McCain goes a step farther and by virtue of his policy proposals seems to believe that if companies are able to make more money, they will invest that money in meeting the technological challenges of the 21st century. Wrong. Executives whose job security and benefits depend on growing revenues every quarter cannot focus on the next five years or even the next year. Therefore corporate research is by definition short term. Government-sponsored ResearchAt the same time, McCain appears willing to under-invest in the very research that could lead to the next set of innovations and technology breakthroughs necessary to power the U.S. economy and tackle problems such as global warming, pandemics and even seemingly mundane challenges like broadband access for remote areas. Senator Obama has proposed doubling the federal government's investment in scientific research. Such a doubling would require about one billion dollars a year, or the cost of a few days in Iraq. In other words, an investment that could easily be made if the political will exists. Ideology Versus Technology PolicyogySenator McCain's blind reliance on private companies to invest in and tackle long term research challenges will shortchange America's long term economic growth. To survive (a perfectly reasonable goal), companies must focus on short term investments and incremental improvements to existing products and services. Perhaps, Senator McCain feels constrained by his party's ideology to place too much hope in the federal government's ability to generate new ideas and innovations. But, if Senator McCain were to follow the money from the federal government to the universities and to the scientists who are pushing the technological envelope every day, worried more about the science and less about stock prices, he might rethink his priorities.
The copyright of the article John McCain Is Wrong on Technology in US Elections is owned by Simon Etcher. Permission to republish John McCain Is Wrong on Technology in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
