Government Played Intimate Role In Tech Development

(Victor Joecks/NPRI) – 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:

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.