"From Concorde to the iPhone, state intervention..."

[The Don of Croy]

...drives technological innovation"

I know PH really does not get enough 'Guardian time' so I thought I'd share this thought provoking piece...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/...

- written by the economics editor of Channel 4 News, no less.

Perhaps understandably he finds many supporters in the comments. And some noteworthy dissenters (ie peeps who know what they're talking about).

[The Don of Croy]

maffski said:

...And 'the iPhone owes it's success to government funded GPS' suffers from the minor disadvantage that the first iPhone didn't have GPS.

I think the author is being deliberately obtuse - he's referencing the most popular Apple product and by inference trying to include Apple's overall success, IMHO.

At the root of it all is a plea for more state spending, albeit for tackling 'climate change' - for which one would think no number is too large to contemplate. Oh, goodee.

Does anyone here have any thoughts on how the industrial revolution would have differed had it been a state enterprise initiative? I'm thinking the canal boats would probably be hauled by steam ponies...and maybe the locks would be nuclear powered...had a government been ladling out the grants to pick winners.