>I'm not going to cut you any slack on the Ritalin thing, but this is a
good response to the R&D issue. Capitalists hover in the wings waiting to
find an "opportunity" in the inventions that others (often academics,
sometimes their own researchers -- either underfunded or supported by
industry-government consortia?) come up with. It is certainly how Bill
Gates has proceeded.
Let's not forget the government role in encouraging the formation of these consortia by promulgating legislation allowing to keep patents and profits by the de iure "nonprofit" universities.
The US approach to invention seems to be based on the stratgey of the "war by attrition" - perfected by the USers since WWII and based on a simple principle "he who throws in more materiele wins" regardless of his tactical ability. It certainly worked against Japan and Germany - USers took beatings each time they engaged in a battle on more or less equal terms, but won the war because the Japanese and the Germans run out of tanks, vessels, aircraft and gas (not to mention the Russian factor). Ditto for inventions. US can afford to outspend any other nation in funding R&D, draining brains from all over the world - and that massive spending is bound to produce something by sheer law of probability.
As far as Ritalin is concerned, however, I am unrepentent. In my book, psychotropic durgs are the best thing since toilet paper. If you disagree, try the _One flew over the cockoo's nest_ treatment.
wojtek