Political philosopher William Galston argues that we are not investing enough in our nation’s future.
He cites data from a 2009 study conducted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation:
We rank fourth in science and technology researchers as a share of our workforce, but only 20th in our rate of change over the past decade; fifth in corporate R&D investment, but 17th in the rate of change; fourth in government R&D investment, but 15th in the rate of change; seventh in broadband, but 22nd in rate of change; first in GDP per working-age adult, but 16th in rate of change; and so on. […] (In seven of the 16 ITIF indicators, we’ve actually gone backwards since 1999.)
The reason according to Galston:
The federal budget and tax code are honeycombed with unproductive payoffs to special interests; it’s time to purge them. And the private economy has been dominated by a financial sector that’s more interested in transferring wealth (to itself) than in creating wealth through sensible investments. Perhaps the 2008-2009 financial crash will force bright young people to stop producing complex derivatives and start working on innovations that improve our lives.
He doesn’t say which “unproductive payoffs to special interests” but I suspect subsidies to oil companies and corporate farms are at the top of the list.
