(no subject)
The future isn't here yet, and it annoys me. And by "here" I mean in the US. At some point in time the US was some kind of technological leader. Supposedly, this was because we gave our corporations more freedom, had strong intellectual property laws (read: patent and copyright laws), and overall supported deregulation. Maybe this was even true at some point in time.
Obviously though, it's not true now. Last year saw the trade deficit climb to $725.8 billion. That represents the highest trade deficit on record as a percentage of the US gross domestic product. This isn't just a fluke: This is the fourth year running that the trade deficit set a record high. Now, admittedly this is in large part due to soaring oil prices and loss of the oil production from the Gulf Coast. I'm not even going to get into that right now, as oil production and consumption is a whole other can of worms. After oil, the biggest category in which the US imported more goods than exported, is high tech products. Does *anyone* find that surprising? I didn't think so.
So, where am I going with this? The US does not produce high tech products anymore. I mean, can anyone name even a handful of US companies, off the top of their head, that make common household electronics? Nah, I didn't think so. Why aren't US companies a competitive force in even US markets? Obviously the demand is there. And it can't possibly be more expensive to operate a company here than in Japan. I think the very things that supposedly gave us our competitive technological edge have lead to our undoing. Specifically: IP laws, excessive deregulation and too much freedom for companies.
Copyright and patent laws were designed to reward a limited monopoly on the sale of an idea or product to *encourage* people to think up new ideas and technologies. Since then, they've been corrupted and perverted to the point where they actively do harm. Companies are created with the purpose of holding patents on a wide variety of vague ideas, while not creating any products. These companies exist for the sole purpose of suing companies that are actually selling useful products based on technologies that have a remote similarity to their patents. One recent example is the case of NTP vs RIM. NTP holds a vague patent that concerns the idea of checking your email wirelessly. RIM, a Canadian company, has successfully developed and marketed a line of wireless PDA like devices for checking and sending email, sending and receiving text messages, and making phone calls. NTP sued RIM and forced a 624 million dollar settlement out of them, without having even a prototype to their name. Why don't US companies make high tech products? Cause suing people who make high tech products makes more sense financially.
Excessive deregulation also plays a role in damaging the US tech market. While almost every other country in the world has one standard for cell phone networks we have several standards that are mutually incompatible with each other and almost any other standard in the world. Deregulation is supposed to spur competition. Competition is supposed to lead to quicker development of new technology. So, where has deregulation in the cell phone market got us? 3 years behind Asia and Europe, copying technology that is a national standard everywhere else, and using phones that were considered out of date the day they were released here. So, where are we going? Towards using the same standards that the rest of the world uses and importing almost any cell phone worth having. The US' one big cell phone maker, Motorola, recently recalled an entire product since they can't even seem to make a phone that works reliably across all of the US' different cell networks. Another blatant failure of the recent push for deregulation: The Baby Bells are reassembling Terminator T1000 style.
Anyways, I've rambled long enough that probably no one will actually bother reading the whole thing. What set off this rant is my apparent inability to get a decent cell phone and fast cell phone based wireless Internet. (~150 kilobits does not count as "fast" in this day and age.) Hopefully, people will still comment even if it's just to say they're as pissed as me about their inability to get cool tech in the US. :D
-John
Update: After I started writing this, and before I finished, Cingular has actually debuted their 3G wireless network (at least in some major cities, Seattle included). Still, the cell phones available here remain woefully antiquated.
Obviously though, it's not true now. Last year saw the trade deficit climb to $725.8 billion. That represents the highest trade deficit on record as a percentage of the US gross domestic product. This isn't just a fluke: This is the fourth year running that the trade deficit set a record high. Now, admittedly this is in large part due to soaring oil prices and loss of the oil production from the Gulf Coast. I'm not even going to get into that right now, as oil production and consumption is a whole other can of worms. After oil, the biggest category in which the US imported more goods than exported, is high tech products. Does *anyone* find that surprising? I didn't think so.
So, where am I going with this? The US does not produce high tech products anymore. I mean, can anyone name even a handful of US companies, off the top of their head, that make common household electronics? Nah, I didn't think so. Why aren't US companies a competitive force in even US markets? Obviously the demand is there. And it can't possibly be more expensive to operate a company here than in Japan. I think the very things that supposedly gave us our competitive technological edge have lead to our undoing. Specifically: IP laws, excessive deregulation and too much freedom for companies.
Copyright and patent laws were designed to reward a limited monopoly on the sale of an idea or product to *encourage* people to think up new ideas and technologies. Since then, they've been corrupted and perverted to the point where they actively do harm. Companies are created with the purpose of holding patents on a wide variety of vague ideas, while not creating any products. These companies exist for the sole purpose of suing companies that are actually selling useful products based on technologies that have a remote similarity to their patents. One recent example is the case of NTP vs RIM. NTP holds a vague patent that concerns the idea of checking your email wirelessly. RIM, a Canadian company, has successfully developed and marketed a line of wireless PDA like devices for checking and sending email, sending and receiving text messages, and making phone calls. NTP sued RIM and forced a 624 million dollar settlement out of them, without having even a prototype to their name. Why don't US companies make high tech products? Cause suing people who make high tech products makes more sense financially.
Excessive deregulation also plays a role in damaging the US tech market. While almost every other country in the world has one standard for cell phone networks we have several standards that are mutually incompatible with each other and almost any other standard in the world. Deregulation is supposed to spur competition. Competition is supposed to lead to quicker development of new technology. So, where has deregulation in the cell phone market got us? 3 years behind Asia and Europe, copying technology that is a national standard everywhere else, and using phones that were considered out of date the day they were released here. So, where are we going? Towards using the same standards that the rest of the world uses and importing almost any cell phone worth having. The US' one big cell phone maker, Motorola, recently recalled an entire product since they can't even seem to make a phone that works reliably across all of the US' different cell networks. Another blatant failure of the recent push for deregulation: The Baby Bells are reassembling Terminator T1000 style.
Anyways, I've rambled long enough that probably no one will actually bother reading the whole thing. What set off this rant is my apparent inability to get a decent cell phone and fast cell phone based wireless Internet. (~150 kilobits does not count as "fast" in this day and age.) Hopefully, people will still comment even if it's just to say they're as pissed as me about their inability to get cool tech in the US. :D
-John
Update: After I started writing this, and before I finished, Cingular has actually debuted their 3G wireless network (at least in some major cities, Seattle included). Still, the cell phones available here remain woefully antiquated.