Vice President Joe Biden recently said the U.S. government has been the pillar of every important technological and ideological advancement since the 1800s.
Biden let the controversial remark slip as he talked to a small crowd at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel during a campaign fundraiser for Tim Bishop, D-New York.
“In the middle of the Civil War you had a guy named Lincoln paying people $16,000 for every 40 miles of track they laid across the continental United States,” Biden went on to say, “No private enterprise would have done that for another 35 years.”
Before I analyze this further, I’d just like to bring us back to 1788, the year the Constitution was ratified.
Did the Founding Fathers intend for the U.S. government to be the most powerful force behind every new invention and advancement? Of course not; the economic theory behind the Constitution is derived heavily from the writings of famous European philosophers John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Adam Smith. Smith, the author of “Inquiry into the Natures and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,” and the father of modern economics, strongly encouraged governments to stay out of private business affairs; thus, the phrase “laissez-faire economics.”
Furthermore, the Constitution placed boundaries on the federal government restricting them from becoming significantly involved in business. Until the Progressive Era, the U.S. economic landscape remained largely and heavily private, especially on the Western front where there was little urban influence and large, open spaces.
The telephone, for instance, is a great example of an extremely important invention with no government involvement. Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone’s widely known architect, received his funding not from a government source, but from a family relative, attorney Gardiner Hubbard. Not only is this true, but Bell was actually involved in a fierce competition with fellow inventor Elisha Gray.
It was this rivalry that helped hurry along advancements in technology and the telephone’s relatively speedy invention. It was free-market competition that led to one of the most important inventions in history, not government oversight.
Vice President Biden must not have known the story of the telephone. The telephone, however, is not a rare technological occurrence; almost every important invention of the 18th century, before Teddy Roosevelt and the rise of the Progressives, was done without governmental oversight.
With the exception of the Roaring ‘20s, which saw immensely high economic growth, one could even argue that government involvement hindered technological advancements until the general public recovered from the Great Depression and adjusted to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s.
The relatively short U.S. history is marked by the unparalleled freedom of its citizens and has led to unmatched economic, ideological and technological growth.
If the U.S. government was heavily involved in business beginning with Washington’s presidency before 1800, there is no doubt in my mind that things would be different.
Perhaps the achievements Biden is referring to are government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security. If only Vice President Biden could see history without the eyes of a 21st century politician.
Send technologically advanced remarks to spmccaul@asu.edu
