Based on the success of the Cash for Clunkers program (at trashing perfectly good cars by burning up their motors), the White House is considering a Cash for Caulkers program to insulate homes. That sounds good because my method of reducing our natural gas use is to put plastic over our windows for the winter. Maybe they’ll give our landlord cash to update the windows.
What I want more than Cash for Caulking, though, is cash for printed circuit boards (PCBs), cash for estate plans, and cash for industrial wireless modules.
I seriously think if the American Bar Association and the Nation Society of Professional Engineers did a better job lobbying, my wife and I could have “cash” for the stuff we sell. After all, some of my circuit boards are in an Iraqi water plan protecting freedom from those who hate us because we’re so beautiful/good/free/etc. And planning for your children after you pass away is a family value.
All kidding aside, electronics and estate planning are important for society and the economy. If those are the criteria to receive cash from the government, my family should be sharing in the stimulus.
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The electronics industry (including PCBs) is probably the most state subsidized industry.
ReplyDeleteI've worked in computer aided PCB manufacturing and a solid 10% of the boards we ran were from national labs or the military. Another 20% were from state supported universities and the military industrial complex. Moreover, almost all the technology we use both to make the PCB and the tech that will go on the finished product was developed with public support. The riskier stages of investment, those entailing basic research and development are almost always publicly subsidized.