[extropy-chat] Research policy, EU versus US

[J. Andrew Rogers]

On Nov 25, 2004, at 10:01 AM, Giu1i0 Pri5c0 wrote:
> The fact that they are in power makes them dangerous. Especially 
> dangerous for Extropians when they try to shut down all medical 
> research which could lead to human enhancement.


There are many more ways to effectively shut down research than mere 
direct government regulation.  Many governments make seemingly 
unrelated policy that have the same or worse consequences for research 
whether intended or not.

Both the US and Japan spend vastly more money on R&D than the entire 
EU, in any relative term you care to use (per capita, percentage of 
GDP, etc), and the gap in absolute terms enormous as well.  The EU 
gives a great deal of lip service to the importance of all this 
research, but has shown no real interest in actually making it happen.  
Social policy and statements of support does not constitute "research".

The US regulation of research is only dangerous to the EU because the 
EU doesn't do their own.  And as the EU reports themselves state, the 
primary reason for this is that research driven enterprise has been 
regulated into non-competitiveness in the EU and no one dares make any 
radical changes to economic policy to make it competitive.  Rather than 
worrying about the US regulating research, perhaps you should worry 
about the fact that the EU has *already* effectively regulated research 
into oblivion.  No matter what happens in the US, it certainly cannot 
hurt to have the EU in the research game.  Why is the US obligated to 
carry the EU's water?


This is the same bizarre myopia that I see a lot when the EU makes 
commentary on all manner of policy in the US and how terrible it is.  
They complain about how fiscal irresponsibility in the US is tragic, 
while refusing to make any real reforms to their own economies which 
are in far worse shape.  They complain about perceived loss of freedoms 
in the US, apparently ignoring the fact that the US still has far 
greater basic freedom e.g. freedom of speech, than the EU has ever had, 
yet there is no push to liberalize their own laws.  They complain about 
research regulation in the US, but only give lip service to doing their 
own research.  They talk about the "atrocity" that is US foreign 
policy, while actively supporting tyrants for personal gain and turning 
a blind eye toward egregious human rights violations in their own back 
yards.  And so on. Can you see how this might look monstrously 
hypocritical to many Americans?  It is as though the EU is living 
vicariously through the US and has no life of its own, or at the very 
least acting as an annoying backseat driver.

Everyone is concerned that the US does not listen to the opining of the 
EU, but there are two questions that should be asked far more than they 
actually are:  Does the EU actually heed the policy advice of the US, 
even on matters where the US has a far better track record?  And is it 
wise for the US to take policy advice from organizations with a policy 
track record that is very arguably worse than the US?  I think 
Americans would be far more likely to be genuinely open to listening to 
the EU if the EU appeared to be serious about fixing their own problems 
instead of just giving them political lip service and then playing 
armchair president of the US.

cheers,

j. andrew rogers