Huffington Post (Atkinson, CEO ITIF) - Let's be clear about what "picking winners" means. It means government identifying industries and technologies where the country needs to be competitive globally, (i.e. health IT, nanotechnology, green energy, biotech, robotics, broadband) and then developing and implementing policies to work with the private sector to ensure that we grow and retain high-end jobs at home in these key sectors. Picking winners is not simply another name for an "industrial policy" in which the government selects specific firms or extremely narrow technologies, nationalizes industries, or impedes beneficial market forces...
Creating the right market conditions for our companies and workers, (i.e. sound tax, trade, and fiscal policies) and investing in basic research are necessary but not sufficient conditions to keep pace with the nations around the world competing vigorously for innovation and related jobs. But we are kidding ourselves if we think that will be enough. Instead of the hodgepodge of policies from an array of complex tax laws to wasteful farm subsidies to a dizzying jumble of state incentives, we need a coordinated and comprehensive approach to making sure we not only come up with the next "big thing" but also that we do not have it snatched away from us. (Remember the VCR?) And that means picking key technologies and industries to focus on.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
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I have an idea .... let those who propose the government pick winners do one thing first .. a proof of concept... let the government pick the winners ... those who think the government should do so will sell their homes, cash in their 401s and invest in the winners... wait 10 years or so ... and see how this "test case" works out ... then we can see if it is wise for the taxpayer to have his/her pocket picked for such enterprises...
ReplyDeleteI have an idea, too... let's let foreign governments (like South Korea) implement national technologoy development initiatives and let's have the U.S. sit on its hands, so that when General Motors announces the battery supplier for its new Volt electric car, it is sources in South Korea because the manufacturing capability to produce such a battery DOES NOT EXIST in the Unitied State... Oh, wait, that already happened.
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