The United States has always become wealthier primarily because they have adopted new technology, embraced it without heavy regulation and let companies work freely.
This is not my understanding of things. The US is far from relaxed in terms of regulations. In fact, most industries have been regulated to the point where only the big players have an opportunity to thrive. The US is the land of monopolies, and each one of those monopolies came about as a result of government regulation(which was lobbied for by the corporations who now hold those monopolies).
Regulations sound like a good thing on paper.. And perhaps they once were. But, they are no longer about protecting people from being swindled, or about encouraging competition in the market. For the past couple of decades, at the very least, regulations have been utilised as a means of crippling small business owners, so that the biggest corporations out there can continue to dominate the market.
If we didn’t pursue better military vehicles, or if we didn’t pursue nuclear weapons, someone else eventually would have. This is the key part of the debate that people don’t seem to understand. Stopping something in the short term doesn’t mean in the long term it won’t be released.
If you were walking home from a nightclub at 3AM in the morning and there was a paralytic female, laid on the ground unconscious, wearing a very short skirt.. Would you rape her? It might be immoral to do so, but, if you don't, chances are, someone with less morality than you will come along and do it before long anyway. Why should some other party obtain some sexual gratification simply because you were too slow to "evolve" into an immoral being?
The point I am getting at, is that just because someone else might do something they shouldn't do, is not an excuse for you to do that thing you should not do before they get the chance. It is perhaps irrelevant anyway, because it is not the US who profits from the manufacturing of weapons for US soldiers. That costs the US, or more appropriately, the US tax-payer, a lot of money. The ones who profit are the weapons manufacturers, and if you believe that they hold any sort of allegiance to the US, or any other sovereign state, then you would be mistaken. If they cared about the US, they would not perpetuate wars that have taken the lives of many Americans, all so that they can sell more weapons and make more profits.
In the United States, due to mainly religious ideology, we are having pushback against the genetics and stem cell research fields.
I don't know if it is mainly religious people who are to blame for the push-back, but I do feel the need to stress that there are plenty of non-religious people-- myself included--who have a serious problem with the immoral actions of many of today's industries.
We have already lost years of potential estimated research time due to lobbying, protesting and anger from civilians. Eventually though, if we continue to give into the demands of a group of people who are against the progress of human evolution, we will lose the scientific advantage to other countries.
To me, this is one of the most insane things I have ever read. I do not mean to insinuate that you, yourself are insane. More that, it is insane how surreal it feels to discover how differently we view the world.
You think that morality is hindering the progression of our species, but I believe that the progression of our species ought to be measured in morality. If we create 7 billion jobs, one for each of us on this Earth, yet in the process, we forget what is right and what is wrong, then I can only view such an occurrence as a regression.
I would love to know, if you don't mind telling me, how you would measure our progress as a species.
The biotech industry is still in its complete infancy and has the potential to become a trillion dollar market that could extend average lifespans by decades in the future,
I think you may be correct here. But, should any type of pills or injections become available that can extend human life to such an extent, I would bet my penis that it would not be made available to the general public. Unless you are a billionaire, you won't have access to such technology. They are already telling us the world is overpopulated(which it is not), so they're not going to help us overpopulate it even more.
If you break your neck say horseback riding and become paralyzed, there is a real chance that today you can use stem cell research to fix the problem, but it would cost you millions of dollars. This is because getting stem cells in the United States is extremely hard and expensive.
If someone breaks their neck while riding a horse, then they're an idiot who deserves a broken neck. If someone mounted you and tried to ride you, what would you do? My guess is that you would throw them off of your back. So when a person gets thrown off the back of a creature that did not want them to be on top of it in the first place, no one should really be surprised or even disappointed. Really though, perhaps it costs millions for stem cell research because they don't want me or you having access to it. Much like I just stated in the previous paragraph in regards to life-extending drugs.
We could supply the industry with more than enough if we used unorthodox methods, but the government is protecting the interests of a small group of people.
This doesn't sound believable to me, but I'm not a single-minded man, so if you could provide me with a link that shows just this, I would be very grateful, as well as open to having my mind changed.
The reason I have a hard time believing it, is because 29 years of living in this world has shown me that government and big business are effectively the very same thing(Interestingly, this could have been revealed in the latest US election where we now have a big-business figure taking the helm at the oval, as if there is no difference in job role). It makes no sense then, for the government to hinder the progress of big business, especially for the sake of "morality," which is a moot point when speaking of an organization that funds itself through extortion.
We need to continue research and avoid regulation on industries that are the future, even if some people don’t approve of them.
As far as I can see, they are still continuing their research. People have been campaigning for a stop to animal cruelty for decades at least, yet, there is still over 100 million animals killed every year in the name of science. (And that's just in the US alone, and not including the 56 billion that are murdered for "food.")
If you think morality has gotten in the way of business at any time ever in this world, then I envy your mindset. I would love to live in a world where what is right is more important than what will make a profit.
I voted for the post, but I'm in total agreement with you here, that morality is the highest standard.
Morality, ethics, is so much more than just arbitrary or god given "rules" to live by. It is something entirely different to "duty". It is actually what guides how we live and how to make sure that we live well. It isn't isolated from practicality, even when it can of course seem so.
Here comes an Ayn Rand quote, so brace yourselves everyone...
She is speaking here of the false "Moral-Practical Dichotomy", that confuse the minds of so many.
Those are powerful fucking words. Who exactly is Ayn Rand? She sounds like a wise one.
She was a powerful fucking woman, through her many struggles. She created her own philosophical system, despised both by the left and right. She was a proponent of minarchist capitalism, but primarily of ethics based in egoism. (Egoism and selfishness, here not to be confused with any negative use of these words, such as "egotism" or "egocentrism")
There are many much more controversial, harder to understand and more ambigious quotes one could pull. She also lived quite an extraordinary and often chaotic life.
If you start getting into her ideas at any point, I would recommend staying away from her fiction books and the many left/right wing opinion pieces that have been written on her.
You are spot on, my friend.