Thanks for raising the question -- feels like capitalism has swallowed up so many of the goals that previously might have been considered part of the public interest. For example, the space program was originally a public program and only now are we seeing private enterprise encroach in that territory. Similarly, why aren't things like autonomous vehicles public enterprises? Surely, the purely real economic value of the project is in the public good.
Obviously this is too simple, but I guess part of the problem you're raising is that we, collectively, don't know what we're trying to do. Until there is a consensus on what we want to do, "progress" will continue to be driven in countless, searching directions by individual entities interested primarily by the profit incentive. Far from being an obsolete idea, a position I feel I hear relatively often, it seems like one that's fallen into disrepair and should be reclaimed. Thanks again for the thoughts.
Thanks for the comment! I agree - it's a really tricky concept and one I don't have a good answer for. I think that public enterprise poses its own challenges. As you said, it's almost guaranteed that not everyone agrees what is "public good". So who decides? I think I almost prefer the individual, nearly directionless pursuit of progress. I wonder if the problem now (if there even is one) is not that we're too directionless but that too many of us have the same (money-minded) definition of progress. Definitely a big question.
Thanks for raising the question -- feels like capitalism has swallowed up so many of the goals that previously might have been considered part of the public interest. For example, the space program was originally a public program and only now are we seeing private enterprise encroach in that territory. Similarly, why aren't things like autonomous vehicles public enterprises? Surely, the purely real economic value of the project is in the public good.
Obviously this is too simple, but I guess part of the problem you're raising is that we, collectively, don't know what we're trying to do. Until there is a consensus on what we want to do, "progress" will continue to be driven in countless, searching directions by individual entities interested primarily by the profit incentive. Far from being an obsolete idea, a position I feel I hear relatively often, it seems like one that's fallen into disrepair and should be reclaimed. Thanks again for the thoughts.
Thanks for the comment! I agree - it's a really tricky concept and one I don't have a good answer for. I think that public enterprise poses its own challenges. As you said, it's almost guaranteed that not everyone agrees what is "public good". So who decides? I think I almost prefer the individual, nearly directionless pursuit of progress. I wonder if the problem now (if there even is one) is not that we're too directionless but that too many of us have the same (money-minded) definition of progress. Definitely a big question.