Science, technology and goverment

Science, Technology, and Government
By Murray N. Rothbard
March 1959 previously unpublished. © 2004 The Mises Institute

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

General Principles Two Basic Problems: General Research, and Military Research Specific Problems: The Alleged Shortage of Scientists Specific Problems: The Alleged Scarcity of Scientific Research Soviet Science The Inefficiency of MilitaryResearch by Government Atomic Energy Basic Research What Should Government Do to Encourage Scientific Research and Development? 10. Automation Epilogue: The Values of Technology

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Science, Technology, and Government1

1. General Principles The crucial economic question, and one of the most important social questions, is the allocation of resources: where should the various and numerousproductive factors: land, labor, or capital, be allocated, and how much of each type to each use? This is the "economic problem," and all social questions must deal with it. The important question of American science and technology is also a problem of the allocation of resources. Thus: our expanding technology and productivity require a great many scientists, researchers, engineers, etc. It alsorequires many different types of resources to be invested in research and development. But out economy also requires many, many other goods and services, and many other types of investment, all of which are essential to its smooth functioning. It requires, for example, transportation to move goods, production lines to manufacture them, telephone operators and repairman to staff our giant communicationsnetwork. It even requires paper manufacturers and paper distributors—for how can a modern economy— including a scientific research staff operate without paper? These are just some of the infinite number of goods and services that go to make up a functioning economy. This fact of reality, then, must be faced: if there are to be more scientists, or more scientific research, then there must be lesspeople and less resources available for producing all the other goods and services of the economy. The crucial question, then, is: how much? How many people and how much capital are to be funneled into each of the various occupations, including science and technology? One of the great, if often unsung, merits of the free enterprise economy is that it alone can insure a smooth, rational distributionand allocation of productive resources. Through the free price systems, consumers signal laborers, capitalists, and businessmen on which occupations are most urgently needed, and the intricate, automatic workings of the price system convey these messages to everyone, thereby creating an efficient, smoothly working economy. There is one and only one alternative to voluntary directions under a freeprice system: and that is government dictation. And this dictation is not only bad because it violates the tradition of individual freedom and free enterprise on which American greatness is built; it is also bad because it is inevitably inefficient and self-destructive. For while government intervention can and does hamper the economic system in its job of satisfying consumer demand, it cannotforce the economy to follow its own demands efficiently. For piecemeal government intervention can only disrupt an economy and defeat its
[ed: This paper was written by Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) on commission in 1959 but was not published until 2004, Mises.org. It is part of the Rothbard Archives, the Mises Institute, Auburn, Alabama.]
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own ends; while overall central planning, bydestroying the price system, robs itself of the possibility of rational economic calculation. Lacking a free price system, it cannot ever satisfy the desires of either consumers or its own planners, for it will not be able to allocate the infinite number and types of labor and capital resources with any degree of efficiency. There are other considerations: we must recognize, for example, that...