Title: Technology, Progress, and Freedom - Foundation for Economic Education
Headings: Technology, Progress, and Freedom
Technology, Progress, and Freedom
Freedom Promotes Technological Progress
Friends and Enemies of Progress
Privatizing Federal Research and Development
Reducing Federal Technology Transfer Activities

Content: Freedom is a prerequisite for progress in an unpredictable and risky world. It encourages profit-seeking and innovation, which in turn result in greater productivity and employment. Technology furthers a free society by providing new opportunities to communicate, work, compete, and deal with others across social and physical barriers. In the past, the wheel and the steam engine enhanced and complemented human physical powers. Today, innovations such as the microprocessor amplify human intellectual capabilities. The electric motor, internal combustion engine, fluorescent and incandescent lighting, and the Internet have had enormous effects on the way we live and work. Emerging technologies such as cryogenics, photovoltaics, aerogels, fuel cells, and radio-wave lighting may do the same in the future. When legislators pass laws that restrict or forbid the use of technology, they grant a privilege to stagnant firms and their workers at the expense of the firms that would have used the new technology and the workers who would have had different, often better jobs. Resources remain in inefficient protected technological processes, creating waste and impeding progress. Calls for protectionism come from firms that have not modernized their production processes and thus are unable to compete with more efficient, lower-cost companies.