Techno-Bounties
Posted by The Red Pill on June 25, 2008
Republican presidential candidate John McCain has issued a challenge to auto makers. Create a car battery that will “leapfrog” with the current plug-in hybrids. The prize? $300,000,000. His Democratic rival, Barack Obama, is critical of the challenge, stating:
After all those years in Washington, John McCain still doesn’t get it,” he said. “I commend him for his desire to accelerate the search for a battery that can power the cars of the future. I’ve been talking about this myself for the last few years. But I don’t think that a $300 million prize is the way to go. When John F. Kennedy decided that we were going to put a man on the moon, he didn’t put a bounty out for some rocket scientist to win – he put the full resources of the United States government behind the project and called on the ingenuity and innovation of the American people, not just in the private sector but also in the public sector.
Ironically enough, NASA did that very thing in 2004—”put a bounty out for some rocket scientist to win.” You remember NASA. It’s that government agency that John F. Kennedy charged to put a man on the moon. MSNBC reports:
The June 15-16 workshop in Washington will focus on drawing up NASA’s first batch of “Centennial Challenges” — government-funded competitions that would encourage non-governmental teams to develop technologies vital to NASA’s exploration initiative. For example, a better astronaut glove might earn its developers $1 million, while the first team to put a privately funded lander on the moon could win $20 million.
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The scheme is modeled after this spring’s DARPA Grand Challenge for autonomous ground vehicles, and the X Prize for private passenger rockets. Some say the Centennial Challenges are NASA’s best hope for recapturing the spirit of the early space effort.
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Offering a prize opens up a technological field to nontraditional players, and get more brainpower devoted to a tough-to-crack problem. “Competitors tend to spend more than the actual value of the prize, which is huge leverage,” Sponberg said.
Like NASA and John McCain, the 18th century British Parliament knew the value of offering prizes to solve technological problems when it offered £20,000 (approximately $11,800,000 today) to anyone who could solve the mystery of longitude. After years of effort by many, the problem was eventually solved by a clockmaker named John Harrison, who lived comfortably off of his fortune for the remainder of his life.
By contrast, Barack Obama and other liberal Democrats such as Nancy “Lets nationalize oil” Pelosi would have us believe that a tax-and-spend obese government is the only entity that has the capability to solve the nation’s challenges. This mindset ignores the power of a free market as much as it sells short the power of American innovation.
After all those months in Washington, it looks like it’s Barack Obama who “still doesn’t get it.”
Tex Taylor said
Red Pill,
By contrast, Barack Obama and other liberal Democrats such as Nancy “Lets nationalize oil” Pelosi would have us believe that a tax-and-spend obese government is the only entity that has the capability to solve the nation’s challenges.
But Red, you must understand. To clueless lefties, the Venezuelan nationalized model of business is a good thing. Hugo Chavez is a man to be admired as were Che and Fidel. Why, it’s been so effective in South America and Cuba to nationalize, that it has put about 75% of the general public in abject poverty. But that’s not important. What is important is that you’ve got a false messiah making the bobble headed lemmings “feel” good about themselves.
in2thefray said
You hater !!!! Obama will use a trillion taxpayers dollars to get a battery that doesn’t work right,can only be made by union employees,cause absolutely no harm to the environment (thereby the not work part) ,it will be made by a mix of single mothers,”ex” gang members,undocumented workers, and when it finally hits the market 12 years late and obsolete but at the bargain price of 300 million.
ChenZhen said
You know, I’m trying to remember which conservative radio pundit was ripping McCain for this suggestion. I think it might have been our local guy here Jason Lewis. The argument was that the payback from the free market for such an innovation would make the $300 mill seem like a drop in the bucket. In other words, no extra incentive is needed, and the process is already moving as fast as it can.
The Red Pill said
Fair enough, Chen.
But if that is the case, doesn’t it play more against Obama’s view than against McCain’s? The free market will still take care of the problem. Government intervention is not needed.
ChenZhen said
Well, I was only mentioning that there was a conservative counter-argument to McCain’s proposal. Kind of tossing it out there, I was. Not necessarily endorsing it.
But I’ll concede that Obama’s analogy wasn’t the best one. I mean, putting a man on the moon was more about American pride than it was about solving a problem of increasing magnitude on our economy such as this. I’d argue that we don’t have too many tangibles to show for our lunar landing. Sure, it probably stands out as one of the most amazing things humankind has ever achieved, and a bona fide testament to our ability to accomplish what could have been deemed impossible, but there wasn’t a whole lot of payoff beyond that.
However, there is something to be said about allowing government’s hand in developing something that will truely benefit everyone and solving a grave problem, and sometimes that aim doesn’t match what is naturally produced in a free market alone. I’ve heard the argument that this problem could be considered as a national security issue, and I’d agree with that, so I see no problem with Obama’s statement ” put the full resources of the United States government behind the project and called on the ingenuity and innovation of the American people, not just in the private sector but also in the public sector.” This is often what happens in a national security crisis. Like WWII. The free market alone wasn’t going to defeat the Nazis. So, if think the way to address the problem is as a “War on Energy Crisis”, then I think you might agree with what Obama is saying here.
Alfie said
Chen you start to mess up the point in the unfailing support of Obama. The free market left unhindered by government can,will (has) solved more problems than the government could dream of. Obama’s position offers no real change. We’ll all get the Carter era “conserve energy” stickers for all the light switches in public buildings. Those stickers will go out to bid of course to a union print shop and cost the tax payers $$.
Picking and choosing who to pour money upon is a grave failing of government. The standards set are usually out dated and the financing never punishes essentially it only rewards. All the universities and private sector entities out there would jump at the chance to come up with the next big thing government just needs to let them. BTW the “defeat the Nazi’s thing is incorrect. The government paid the bills but the private sector produced the solutions that allowed for the output.
Ecclesiastes said
That Obama is a Marxist is not news.
I have a problem with McCain.
There is already a $300 million dollar prize out there. It’s called making a profit. Government intrusion, even like this, is the problem not the solution.
Check out what Rutan, the winner of the Ansari X prize, thinks of NASA. You’ll get the idea : http://youtube.com/watch?v=nwfSENkvJXY
If McCain wasn’t a leftist himself, he’d pledge that he would veto any attempt to impose a windfall tax, or control “price gouging”. He’d swear, and I know he can swear, that there would be no government controls on environmental or personal risks for the term of his presidency or the next if he could help it.
If they would all just G O A W A Y !
Alfie said
The private sector offers cash prizes.www.ted.com/index.php/pages/view/id/6 Why shouldn’t the government ? It’s all about providing the stimulus that allows all corners of the private sector. The knock against NASA is that the government dictates everything and fails to hold anyone accountable. This is easily understandable since the government is proud of it’s lack of accountability.
Son of Bill Brasky said
Yeah having an Apollian effort to reduce energy dependence is SOCIALISM. How about paying for invasions you don’t support?? I think that’s socialism.
All great endeavors have government backing.. landing on the moon..building the highways..nuclear power..and on and on.
I have no problem with offering rewards for great invention.. but $300 million dollars?? Is he kidding me? $300 million dollars for a single battery? Someone here mentioned the X prize.. I think that was $10 million.
Borrowing $300 million from China to pay for a battery is the kind of lunacy that this country doesn’t need.