debating libertarians

[kayak3]

Doug Henwood wrote:
> 
> kayak3 wrote:
> 
> >Has anyone on the list debated libertarians?
> 
> I've done it on the net, on the radio, and at parties, with opponents
> ranging from name-brand flacks like Michael Tanner of Cato to
> anonymous newsgroup loons. My experience is that you'll get a lot of
> abstract priciples and soundbites but not much in the way of argument
> from evidence. I debated/interviewed a Cato hack on my radio show on
> Social Security privatization and, when cornered, she kept repeating
> the mantra, "You don't want the government managing your retirement
> portfolio, do you?"
> 
> One of my favorite topics is the development of the computer and the
> Internet, which they typically take as a story of of plucky
> individualist entrepreneurs. I've patiently tried to make the
> argument that both were subsidized for decades by the Pentagon and
> that nonprofit institutions like universities played an important
> role throughout - and it's only relatively recently that
> profit-seekers have played a leading role after the government paid
> the basic research and startup costs. (The Pentagon lobbied private
> industry and Wall Street from the late 1940s into the 1960s to get
> involved in funding and development, but there was little interest.)
> The typical response I've gotten from libertarians is either to deny
> this is the case, or to claim that if taxes hadn't been so high the
> private sector would have done it, and better than the government.

So I've been looking through all of my past issues of the LBO looking
for some data that indicates that there is no correlation between tax
rates on corporations and the level of money they spend on R&D. I know
that I've read somewhere at least once, if not several times that R&D
spending went down through the 80's as tax rates on corporations (and
wealthy individuals) also went down. Corporations decided instead to go
on a binge of mergers, aquisitions and all sorts of speculation. Off the
top of your head, does anyone know of any studies that confirm this? I'm
sure they are out their somewhere.

Thanks
Brad Hatch