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by dv_dt 59 days ago
This is exactly how the opportunities were passed up. I am convinced its in no small part because of the unrealistic expectations of a very high success ratio with a small number of experiments. The US throws a lot of money at relatively few bets while China funds entire competitive markets at smaller scales and lets the ecosystem vet them.

There is also political alignment in funding next generation technologies even if it's disruptive of established industries. Lobbying of fossil fuel industry did not stop renewable factory investments in China. Whereas in the US any failure of a renewable investment was highlighted by fossil fuel lobbyists as a pretense to stop the investments

1 comments

PPP was a ton of small bets, with rampant fraud and waste (and a stupid fundamental idea).

The EV chargers were supposed to fund hundreds of stations in each of the 50 states: only a few dozen were built in 4 years.

If the government focuses on one big project, like the SLS, it becomes rife with pork and clumsily slow.

But there’s hardly a better track record with splitting a program up among applicants or states (see SNAP, rampant fraud in “autism” services, PPP, or homelessness in California)