I just spent 90 minutes watching how DC wants to fix the US economy. You don't really want to watch it...what I find interesting is how the Whitehouse has created this "Champions of Change: Make it in America" agenda that is great. But politicians and many of the smart people (can they be the same?) from industry,academia, etc. default to the government must fix this.
Only Dale Dagherty from Maker Magazine and Maker Faires and possibly a few others really get it.
When you do a top down directive "Make it in America" and you must buy products made in America...what is the cost? How can we exist in a global marketplace with a self preservation mode (aka protectionism)?
The US CTO, Anesh Chopra mentioned the "open source" nature of software and how that can be used to solve the cost of training.
A representative from Nielson Kellerman (Alex?) stated it well and I am paraphrasing her, "No amount of buy America will help if we aren't the best, if we aren't the most innovative."
There is the rub, innovation is fostered in the Maker culture, that Dale has become the front man for. The anti DC as somebody put it in this video.
Political solutions do the opposite. The Dept of Transportation forces the purchase of railing that is manufactured in the US. If that product is the best and most innovative then the rest of the world will buy it without being forced to do so. If the only purchaser of the rail is the US government because the technical people were forced to do it...what have we accomplished?
