Spending money on research and development is a funny thing. It’s hard to tell what’s going to be a success, and sometimes the results aren’t valuable for decades. For example, Uber is investing heavily in driverless cars with the explicit goal of revolutionizing transportation. Even if the results aren’t always successful we’re convinced R&D investments are a leading indicator of long term economic strength.
http://howmuch.net/articles/research-development-spending-by-country
Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.