Governments Must Bail Out Tech

As the recession rolls on, the United States government is handing multibillion-dollar bailouts to sunset industries whose mistakes got us into this mess in the first place. First they bail out banks whose executives just party with the money, even as PayPal reports a 27% jump on Cyber Monday. Now they bail out carmakers who refuse to go electric, even as Tesla ships high-performance electric sports cars.

The British, on the other hand, have the right idea: we need to innovate our way out of this recession. Governments need to bail out sunrise industries like technology. That’s why the British government is establishing a £1 billion ($1.47 billion) emergency venture capital fund for technology start-ups struggling to survive the recession.

Telcos and Google often come to blows over online freedom, but even they come together in lobbying for tech bailouts. Even mortal enemies agree that the only way to survive recession is innovation.

Governments shouldn’t save what doesn’t work anymore. They should save what’s starting to work.

(Photo by Tracy Olson.)

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