Occupy Wall Street "Humanist" vs. Former Soviet Citizen on Oil, Healthcare & Return to Middle Ages

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News & Politics

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• Occupy Wall Street
• OWS
• pollution
• oil
• drilling
• healthcare
• middle ages
• Zuccotti Park
• NY
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• New York
• New York City

[spartan2600]

@ctlex3 It took 50 years from the first computer to when computers could actually make a profit in the so-called "free market." There is no corporation, no industry or even groups of industries that would dare to pour hundreds of billions into an investment that won't turn a profit until half a century and 2 generations later. Only the government could achieve that.

Besides technology, capitalism depends on the government to protect the vast inequalities of wealth between the haves and havenots

[spartan2600]

@ctlex3 In several comments I've thoroughly explained how the Internet and computers were created by the government. That's just a small part of the picture. The big picture is that capitalism is incapable of *significant* technological advances or increases in worker productivity. One of the main reasons for this is that any truly tranformational leap in technology cannot be monetized instantly, and anything that doesn't add to next quarters' earnings are discarded by capitalists.

[ctlex3]

@spartan2600 How does that make capitalism impotent without government? So far I fail to see the connection you are trying to make since it seems that your statement was abstract and incomplete. Perhaps some factual examples instead of generalizations. This is not meant as an insult but perhaps a further explanation of what you were trying to say.

[ChiggerLemon]

@StonewallJackson26 You mean the small amount of people living close to the US border? Stop generalizing.

[spartan2600]

@StonewallJackson26 Computers and later the internet and all telecommunications were researched with government funds, then the products were bought by the government, all with government educated and trained and salaried scientists and managers.

This just goes to show how utterly impotent capitalism is without the government.

[spartan2600]

@StonewallJackson26 The Defense Department directly funded IBM's research budget, the government educated and trained all the researchers, the government told IBM what it needed to be researched, and then bought the products of that research. IBM was all but a government research department. And the same exact scenario existed with Intel, and AT&T and Bell Labs. Besides this, these companies couldn't have done even that without collaborating with public universities like MIT.

[spartan2600]

@StonewallJackson26 Well, the first computer was called ENIAC, was directly created by the United States Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory, and was used to calculate artillery trajectories. Turing, who had more to do with inventing the computer than any other human being was on the British government's payroll when he did all his important work.

Now regarding IBM, which didn't invent computers, but did develop them- IBM was basically a privately managed government appendage.

[StonewallJackson26]

@spartan2600 the government didn't create computers. IBM is not the government

[StonewallJackson26]

@ChiggerLemon sure it does. why do you think canadians cross the border for out patient surgery?

[homersparents]

Why should i have the solution...?