Contributors

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Get Out of the Way?

For the last few months, we've been hearing a classic line from the right. It goes something like this.

If the government would only get out of the way, the economy could take off.

Like many things they say, it's a giant pile of steaming shit and, sadly, has the distinct odor of the John Birch Soceity. I smell a lot of Koch on this mound of poo...

According to the National Science Foundation, the federal government funds 57 percent of basic research, compared to less than 18 percent for business, 15 percent for colleges and universities and 11 percent for nonprofits. And business only funds about 6 percent of university-based scientific research.

And take a look at this table which shows that the Evil Government has been a major contributor to science for the last half century. They've also given tax breaks to companies that engage in research which has saved each of these businesses billions of dollars. This was begun under President Reagan. The government also sets standards which provides a framework for companies to work more efficiently.

This is all great information. And where did I find it all? Well...here.

Yeah, that's right...PolitiFact...a topic that has recently come up in comments. Politifact has become yet another (in a very long series) of sties that is "liberally biased." TRANSLATION: I am a conservative who wants to win arguments, can never be wrong, and don't like what they say. Therefore, they are liberally biased. 

As we will soon see, the next step will be to a). completely ignore Politifact's analysis of Democratic statements or b). applaud (spin) them for being factually based while the Republican statement analyses are faulty and riddled with errors. How convenient. I'm fairly certain this will occur for this post.Well, they are just going to have to get used to it because now I'm going to link a whole shit load of Politifact and Factcheck articles which have caught my fancy of late.

Anyhoo, The government has been an integral part of innovation which has lead to the United States being leaders in the world when it comes to innovation. The notion that they need to get out of the way is ludicrous when you consider the facts. They need to be very much leading the way given their successful track record.

Makes Reagan's nine terrifying words seem awfully silly.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope you are currently listening to Jason Lewis between 5-8pm. I know you'd find yourself in perfect harmony with his take on Egypt and foreign diplomacy.

juris imprudent said...

we've been hearing

I haven't, though admittedly, I don't listen to Beck or Rush like you do. I really think you are listening to the voices in your head again. Otherwise, why no link? [Of course I know what the response will be - just look around the Internet, you'll find it (for me).]

Ann said...

Would it be safe to say that businesses fund less research due to the inherent risks involved, whereas the government has a higher appetite for risk as they have no personal stake?

GuardDuck said...

According to the National Science Foundation, the federal government funds 57 percent of basic research, compared to less than 18 percent for business, 15 percent for colleges and universities and 11 percent for nonprofits. And business only funds about 6 percent of university-based scientific research.

But business funds 67% of all R&D compared to only 26% from government. Business also funds 60% of Applied Research compared to 32% by government and business funds 84% of development compared to 15% from government.


NIST? You actually hear someone say it's not the governments job to standardize weights and measurements? Heck, the Magna Carta had a provision for government sponsored standardization of weights and measures.

And one of the problems with Politifact is one that you've just fallen into. The politifact article was refuting a statement that, I'll quote, "If the govt would get out of the way, we could have innovation and development,". The Politifact article refuted that specific idea while you came here and twisted that into your statement "If the government would only get out of the way, the economy could take off.

Those two statements are not the same thing. Politifact did not refute your statement. They refuted a narrowly defined statement that spoke of something completely different than what you are arguing.

jeff c. said...

Actually, the statement that Mark gave in his post was the same on that Kevin (the British one) gave in comments as his solution to the economic problems we have. Essentially, each statement intimates the same thing-the government is the problem and needs to be stopped. More word games again. Whatever, Guard Duck.

GuardDuck said...

You know, I have no doubt that Rep. Broun meant in his comment essentially the same thing that Kevin said.

But, and this is a big one, Politifact did not refute Kevins statement. Mark did not refute Kevins statement. You did not refute Kevins statement.

The refutation was upon the actual words used in Rep. Brouns statement. Not the more general statement used by Kevin. Further, that refutation required Politifact to narrow their selection of facts to such a degree as to be picking of nits. Or as you say, word games.