From: rn11195@sage (Robert Nehls)
Subject: Re: Clinto and Space Funding
Organization: Medtronic, Inc.
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 16:31:20 GMT

clements@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
: 
: Japan and Germany have relatively little military spending, and as a result of
: this they can spend more on government support of civilian R & D programs.

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Japan and Germany had a unique advantage in that they lost WWII, (this
sounds stupid, but I'm talking about today, not 50 years ago) and weren't
allowed to have militaries.  Also, because of the reconstruction after the
war (much of which was funded by the US), Japan and Germany were given new
factories which were often better than the older ones that were left in the
US. Things were tough for them and they did do a lot of things right and for
that they do deserve a lot of credit. 
: 
: >Do you really think that it is a coincidence that
: >the military and space budget cuts coincide with the Japenese gaining a
: >technological edge?
: 
: Come on... They've had an edge for a *lot* longer than that!
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Not true.  If you look at the emergence of the Japenese as a superpower,
they didn't really have any say in the world's economic picture until the
mid-70s.  This is the same time period when NASA's budget began to take
serious hits and the military started to take a lot of heat (post-Vietnam).
If you look at Japan's R and D efforts up until then it was pretty dismal.
It basically consisted of taking apart US products to see how they worked
and then repackage them at a lower cost.  Even today, that is what Japan is
best at.  Even though they are leading in a lot of fields.  If you look at
the technologies involved, most of the theoretical work was done outside of
Japan.  The Japanese will be the first to admit that due to the rigid
structure of their culture, they are not as creative as a lot of western
countries.  What they are good at is producing.  This IMO is why Japan is
doing so well.  They let others do the R and D which is expensive and very
time consuming, while they fine tune their manufacturing facilities in order
to exploit the product once it is ready to be produced.  They have already
stated that they don't necessarily abide by any patents and even if
something does go to court, they've already made their billions off of it
and they're willing to take a slap on the wrist and pay a few millions in
penalities.

: seen to be spent. This is what MITI does in Japan, and look how successful they
: have been.
: 
: This is where that military money can and should be spent. However, the typical
                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Dave, this is exactly what I was talking about.  So many people can say
where the money should go, but nobody knows where it goes when its cut from
the military budget.  It just vanishes and leaves thousands of people out of
work.  As I stated in my previous post.  Until the programs are set up to
orderly divert the money to another R and D effort, it should stay in the
military budget where at least it is going some good.

(other rhetoric deleted)

--

Bob Nehls                             Sr. Design Engineer
rn11195@sage.medtronic.com            (612)574-8559

Working Towards Full Life...