No joke.
Here's what Secretary Steven Chu, a top official in the Obama administration who's in charge of the U.S. Department of Energy, claimed today at Sen. Harry Reid's National Clean Energy Summit:
Browse through these lists of 10 popular inventions and the top 50 inventions of the last 50 years. Notice anything missing? Oh yeah, government's "intimacy" in creating the telephone, the television, the automobile or even the TV remote.
If you have some extra time and want some laughs, go back to the 28:25 mark of Chu's speech and watch him try to explain how the government was really responsible for airplanes.
Of course, the Wright brothers invented it, Chu says, but if it weren't for military spending or allowing private companies to deliver the U.S. mail (amazing how he considers deregulation to be “intimate” government involvement, but I digress), no doubt airplanes would have faded away.
Sure, mankind has been trying to fly for thousands of years, but absent some military spending, I'm sure this technology would have been lost to history, and we'd all be traveling on a rail system that would make Dagny Taggart envious.
What garbage.
Of course, given that Chu was at a conference designed to promote government subsidies to private businesses, false claims are par for the course.
For more coverage of Reid's Clean Energy Summit (and to find out what other ridiculous things government officials are saying), check out NevadaJournal.com.
Here's what Secretary Steven Chu, a top official in the Obama administration who's in charge of the U.S. Department of Energy, claimed today at Sen. Harry Reid's National Clean Energy Summit:
So the government played an incredibly intimate role in all the technologies that led to prosperity in the United States, and we must not lose sight of that fact.And if you don't believe he said that — and given how ludicrous that statement is, I wouldn't blame you — here's video of his comment (30:50 mark):
Browse through these lists of 10 popular inventions and the top 50 inventions of the last 50 years. Notice anything missing? Oh yeah, government's "intimacy" in creating the telephone, the television, the automobile or even the TV remote.
If you have some extra time and want some laughs, go back to the 28:25 mark of Chu's speech and watch him try to explain how the government was really responsible for airplanes.
Of course, the Wright brothers invented it, Chu says, but if it weren't for military spending or allowing private companies to deliver the U.S. mail (amazing how he considers deregulation to be “intimate” government involvement, but I digress), no doubt airplanes would have faded away.
Sure, mankind has been trying to fly for thousands of years, but absent some military spending, I'm sure this technology would have been lost to history, and we'd all be traveling on a rail system that would make Dagny Taggart envious.
What garbage.
Of course, given that Chu was at a conference designed to promote government subsidies to private businesses, false claims are par for the course.
For more coverage of Reid's Clean Energy Summit (and to find out what other ridiculous things government officials are saying), check out NevadaJournal.com.
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3 comments:
Actually, if you listen to the three minutes of the video leading up to the statement you quote, he explains exactly how the government played an extremely important role in the inventions and technologies that have made America great.
Further, the entire speech is about American competitiveness, how we are losing our competitive edge to the Chinese, and how we can get it back. It appears Mr. Joecks has no interest in America regaining her competitive edge, but would rather surrender our future to China and the Eurozone.
"It appears Mr. Joecks has no interest in America regaining her competitive edge, but would rather surrender our future to China and the Eurozone."
OMG, how can one person be so amazingly stupid?
First of, the Eurozone is in worse shape then we are and precisely because the Eurozone is crammed with heavy government involvement. We aren't losing squat to them.
Second, China's supposed superiority to us is based on smoke and mirrors. Look behind the facade the Chinese government paints and you can see how truly screwed up China really is. Their GDP and other "growth" is phonier than the Soviet Unions was.
And third, it's you and Chu who want to surrender our future by continuing the failed dictatorial big government policies that have brought us down and killing the free market policies that truly allowed us to flourish in the past.
Plus, look where Chu spewed his little tripe. Not at some economic summit where a free exchange of ideas is being promoted but no, at a summit to promote spending more taxpayer dollars on favored industries. This had nothing to do with "regaining" American competitiveness and everything to do with stumping for some more cash to reward Obamas cronies with.
You're nothing more than a authority worshiping, bureaucrat loving, little Big Brother sycophant. You put your trust in politicians, control, and bureaucrats instead of freedom and ordinary people and it makes me sick. You're a pathetic little brainwashed person, exactly the type Chu and Obama need to continue their Communist makeover of the U.S
"Actually, if you listen to the three minutes of the video leading up to the statement you quote, he explains exactly how the government played an extremely important role in the inventions and technologies that have made America great."
We did listen to the whole thing. Just because someone chooses to highlight a particular section of a speech doesn't mean they didn't hear all of it. Duh.
Commie Chu didn't "explain" anything. What he did was weave a narrative based on misinformation, glaring generalities and a slick massaging of facts. His whole "evidence" for beneficial government meddling in industry and technology is a mile wide and an inch deep. And of course, being a lefty sheep you bought all of it.
Just because government was involved in some technology or industry at one time does not mean that those industries wouldn't have existed or thrived without the government butting it's nose in. Like most liberals, the concept of correlation vs. causation goes over your head.
For instance, the Internet didn't go anywhere until the government got it's hands off it. Al Gore didn't invent the Internet, but he did cripple it. His ideas for it if you listen to them today are a joke and completely divorced from reality, the internet would be a niche technology if Gore and the feds had their way. And for semiconductors, give me a break. All the government did was hold back that industry, the technology went nowhere until the 80's when people like Steve Jobs and other entrepreneurs created Silicon Valley. The internet and semiconductors would have existed without government meddling and in fact would have flourished quicker, easier and came up with a better end product. In fact, most government involvement was in leeching off the private sector which was the true pusher of advancements in exchange for the governments supposed "beneficial" forceful interventions.
As for agriculture, how Chu can say the government helped in that area when all the efficiencies and innovations that made it safer and more efficient like GM crops, irradiation and pesticides were either fought by the feds, still being fought by the feds, or outright banned by them is beyond me. Not to mention one of the biggest advancements of agriculture was the cotton gin which was invented by Eli Whitney, not the government. And don't forget the Reaper, also not invented by the feds.
But really makes the speech a joke is how grossly Chu misidentifies the problem and proscribes the wrong solution. What made the U.S. less competitive is the crippling regulations, meddling and distortion caused by Big Brother. You know, all the crap he wants us to continue to do. What a libtard. This concern of his for the U.S. and it's competitive edge is nothing more than a smokescreen for his real agenda: pursing his idiotic "green job" utopian fantasy regardless of how much damage it does to our economy.
Next Chu will claim cars would have went nowhere if not for military spending on tanks and jeeps!
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