Charlie Rose

Sugarland  10/20/2010 11:02 PM Report

Comment Charlie Rose-William Lynn 18 Oct 2010

It was like a breath of fresh air to listen to a high government official, Mr. Lynn, describe the importance of Intellectual Property in the 21 st century economic arena. Not only will IP have to be protected but new methods will have to be devised to establish it’s true value and ownership.

If the US had received the true value for all the IP transferred to China in the past few years, the Chinese would owe the US trillions. It’s baffling that the US now owes them two trillion.

The comment by REMANT is so… tied to 19 th century economics. In Adam Smith’s time the work force was not educated and their input was physical labor only slightly up grade from beasts of burden. The IP input was supplied by the elite capitalists.

In today’s world, the US work force is very capable of generating high quality IP and maybe it can supply the multiplier that Mr. Lynn says is necessary for the US to maintain a leadership role.

REMant  10/19/2010 01:49 PM Report

I'd argue with the idea floated here that intellectual property rights matter very much overall. Indeed, they seem to be an albatross. It is sheer labor that really rules economies no matter what their intellectual level. We often assume that brains deserve more than brawn, but one lesson we ought to have learned from the current situation is that an economy can't get very far without a workforce willing and capable of working no matter how "smart" it seems to be. And we we have to pay it what it is actually worth, and relatively, too. I think the budget in the area of cybersecurity vastly inflated. Too many contractors, etc, and too little intelligence. A typical Washington boondoggle.