In the case of legislation limiting economic activity I think it’s hard to argue that reducing options can ever be an encouragement to innovation and technological progress, although it can potentially redirect it in politically favoured directions.
Hmmm… spending tax money to directly fund basic research doesn’t count? (If you have to, assume that the people whose money was taxed would have spent it on something generally unrelated to technological progress—say, tobacco cultivation and consumption.)
In theory, eliminating or discouraging options that result in not creating progress should result in more progress...
It would count as an example of redirecting innovation and technological progress in politically favoured directions. I would argue that very little money is spent on something unrelated to technological progress—all industries, the tobacco industry included, drive technological progress in their pursuit of greater profits. The technologies that get developed will tend to be technologies that help satisfy the public’s actual wants and needs rather than those that the political class thinks are more important or those that have the best lobbyists.
Hmmm… spending tax money to directly fund basic research doesn’t count? (If you have to, assume that the people whose money was taxed would have spent it on something generally unrelated to technological progress—say, tobacco cultivation and consumption.)
In theory, eliminating or discouraging options that result in not creating progress should result in more progress...
It would count as an example of redirecting innovation and technological progress in politically favoured directions. I would argue that very little money is spent on something unrelated to technological progress—all industries, the tobacco industry included, drive technological progress in their pursuit of greater profits. The technologies that get developed will tend to be technologies that help satisfy the public’s actual wants and needs rather than those that the political class thinks are more important or those that have the best lobbyists.