Government Backing Quotes
Reference to the comparison of candidates Barack Obama andMitt Romney.
This quotation illustrates on how even recent history can be perceived differently depending on one’s philosophy and world view. In America, we tend to minimize the government’s role in important innovation and great leaps forward. Many people from Communist or Socialist cultures, tend to minimize the role of private enterprise. For example in the case of the Internet, it is true that all the initial R&D was funded by DARPA, a unit of the Defense Department. And it is also true that the World Wide Web innovation and development was done and paid for by CERN a scientific consortium of European Governments. However, the total amount of those two government expenditures would not equal Microsoft’s R&D budget for 1 day. Most of the developmental capital came from the private sector and the people who did most of the innovative work were private sector employees. However, there would have been many years delay if the U. S. Government had not funded the first small but critical activity. The government sector provides a very large proportion of the sales income for Microsoft, Apple, Intel and the many other Silicon Valley firms, not with contracts for innovation but as buyers of their hardware and software. There are government contracts but those applications are specialized for the government and are a small fraction of the revenue received by Silicon Valley.
Beaumarchais had loaned the Americans ½ million French Livres. However, Beaumarchais served the French King Louis XVI as a spy and advisor on foreign affairs. The money had been secretly provided by the French government to help the American cause while still being able to officially deny to England that they were in any way involved in the rebellion. The American agent, Silas Dean, who arranged for the money saw through the ruse. See {624187} regarding the transaction. It was the first material aid that the French provided. Much more followed without which the American Revolution might never have been successful.
