> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Les Schaffer
> Yet Democrats, too, think they have natural friends in the high-tech
> industry. There is a growing feeling in some quarters that-as in the
> case against Microsoft-government is not always a force for
> evil. Indeed, the public sector may hold the key to solving the social
> problems that now plague the high-tech industry: the shortage of
> educated labour, the over-strained transport system and the rapidly
> growing gap between rich and poor.
For all the libertarian bluster, most hard-headed tech folks know that their wealth is intimately tied up in government intervention, from subsidies to the Internet and funding of new university research (which firms "borrow" for new products) to patent and copyright enforcement. They also have depended on government help in developing and reinforcing technology standards in order to avoid wasteful production of useless tech dead-ends -- i.e. the Betamax kind of debacles. Look at the recent skirmishing over the HDTV and DVD standards. As well, tech folks are massive free-riders on the educational system, since they want their workers pre-trained before they get hired. And don't forget about trade deals to enforce intellectual property.
There is no industry on earth more dependent and involved in government decision-making and intervention than high-tech; to argue that government is "evil" from such folks is ideological silliness. They depend on government for their very existence.
--Nathan Newman