The tired old criticism that socialism doesn’t work because there is no motive to innovative only needs to examine the Chinese economy in order to be brought up short. However, as Tony Smith points out in this article, there in no direct correspondence between scientific innovation and capitalism. The truth is that it is too risky to invest money in frontier science. First, the innovation might not be commercially profitable. Second, it may take too long to develop. For this reason capitalists fob off the basic research, which is for foundation of innovation, onto the state. Capitalists will only invest in science when it is clearly profitable. Further, capitalists have been known to suppress innovation when that innovation challenges the resources it has already invested in.
The image is of trolley cars being burned. There’s capitalist innovation for ya.
Read in The Tribune UK
