THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 22, 1995 TAG: 9506220006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
At a time when the poor, seniors, students and children are losing government benefits, big business subsidies and tax breaks belong on the table too. But R&D is an exception.
Some analysts calculate the government gives away (or forgoes in taxes) as much as $200 billion a year in corporate welfare. Many of these programs are absurd and unnecessary, but to reduce government aid for research would be to throw out the baby with the bath water. And the babies born of research grow up to be whole new industries.
Even without any government cutbacks, a Bush administration study warned of an R&D crisis. The industrial downsizing and consolidation of the past 15 years has hit R&D labs especially hard. When GE bought RCA, it disposed of the famous Sarnoff Labs that had helped develop color TV, the electron microscope and solid-state amplifiers.
The breakup of AT&T meant sharp cuts at Bell Labs and the demand for faster results, less tolerance for research requiring years to pay off. Other companies which have shut down or curtailed research include Eastman Kodak, Du Pont and GM.
The National Science Foundation reports that by 1994 the United States was investing 1.9 percent of GDP in civilian R&D. That compares unfavorably with Japan's 3 percent and Germany's 2.7 percent. Though its population is only 60 percent our size, Japan was matching us dollar for dollar in R&D by 1991. And the Japanese are famous for waiting patiently for a return.
It isn't the government's responsibility to make up for industrial shortsightedness, of course. But incentives to invest in R&D wouldn't be amiss since more than a business here or there is at stake. Whole industries can be lost to foreign competition if nothing is done.
Arguments that fiscal conservatism is incompatible with funding research are simply false. Government has a long history of encouraging investment in essential technologies, even though this is sometimes scorned as industrial policy that picks winners. Railroad, telegraphy, telephony, aerospace and semiconductor industries have all been given a boost by government involvement.
Today, the Advanced Technology Program is on the Republican chopping block. It deserves a second look. Money saved by cutbacks in military R&D can fruitfully be rechanneled to civilian research. Tax incentives for R&D need to be explored. They can be abused, but that simply argues for care in their design. One thing is certain. If we eat our Research and Development seed corn today, our competitors are likely to eat our lunch tomorrow. by CNB