Why does the US provide all critical electronic design knowledge to the world?

[vk6zgo]

Similarly, in the US, to vote in person you only need to be in the line by the closing time prescribed by local statute.
In some locations, where one party is desperate to minimize voting, it is now illegal for third parties to give water to those standing in line.

While this may sound terrible, it is probably in line with prior statutes that prohibited serving whiskey within 200 feet of polls and other similar restrictions to restrict small bribes (I'll give you a double shot of Old Stomach Killer if you vote for my guy").   No doubt all such laws are abused, in both directions, but the intent is not always evil.

There would be a lot of empty bottles of "Old Stomach Killer" & a lot of happy liars then, as who knows who anyone voted for.
It's not like you could repossess the grog if your guy lost.

It could also be a deciding factor for some otherwise wavering teetotalers to vote against your candidate.

Meanwhile, Australian polling booths actually have "sausage sizzles" run by various non-political organisations.

The advantage of  Saturday voting is that most people are able to get to a polling booth sometime during the day, or they can vote early at a couple of nominated sites, have a postal vote or if they are away within this country, vote as an absentee at any other polling booth.
If they are in another country, they can vote at the nearest Australian Consular office.

[CatalinaWOW]

Similarly, in the US, to vote in person you only need to be in the line by the closing time prescribed by local statute.
In some locations, where one party is desperate to minimize voting, it is now illegal for third parties to give water to those standing in line.

While this may sound terrible, it is probably in line with prior statutes that prohibited serving whiskey within 200 feet of polls and other similar restrictions to restrict small bribes (I'll give you a double shot of Old Stomach Killer if you vote for my guy").   No doubt all such laws are abused, in both directions, but the intent is not always evil.

There would be a lot of empty bottles of "Old Stomach Killer" & a lot of happy liars then, as who knows who anyone voted for.
It's not like you could repossess the grog if your guy lost.

It could also be a deciding factor for some otherwise wavering teetotalers to vote against your candidate.

Meanwhile, Australian polling booths actually have "sausage sizzles" run by various non-political organisations.

The advantage of  Saturday voting is that most people are able to get to a polling booth sometime during the day, or they can vote early at a couple of nominated sites, have a postal vote or if they are away within this country, vote as an absentee at any other polling booth.
If they are in another country, they can vote at the nearest Australian Consular office.

None of the vote steering things are very effective.  But when votes are close, sometimes a tiny fraction of a percent difference, even marginally effective methods work.  In my state all voting is done by mail, with the minor exception that once the ballot is mailed to you, you have the option of physically depositing the ballot in a collection box instead of mailing it back in.  There are loud complaints about the possibilities for abuse, but so far the investigations have found only a handful of questionable ballots.  But as one Senate race in Minnesota demonstrated, one vote can be the difference.

In my state the real opportunity for shenanigans is in the registration process, but even here there has been little demonstrated problem.  That is probably mostly because there aren't large scale problems, but it hasn't really been thoroughly and effectively investigated.

[Echo88]

I sure hope after 12 pages you guys are close to discovering whether the US provides all critical electronic design knowledge to the world.

[TimFox]

Perhaps we should vote on that.

[SteveThackery]

I sure hope after 12 pages you guys are close to discovering whether the US provides all critical electronic design knowledge to the world.

Maybe the population is just, on average, smarter than others.  I've heard it argued that most people in Europe during the 16th to 19th centuries lived in abject poverty, but only a subset of them had the balls to walk away from everything they knew, get on a ship to an unknown land, and hope it all turned out alright. Maybe these particular qualities are more prevalent in the US for that reason.

Also, like Australia, the US is tremendously lucky. A relatively small population (for the size of the place) surrounded by vast resources. It must have been easy to generate wealth, and with a small population to share it over, everyone gets rich. Look at Australia: 27 million people sharing a continent bigger than Europe. Dig up some coal and minerals, sell it to the Chinese, and we're all living like royalty.

Something special happened in America after WW2. Their aerospace industry went supernova and achieved some truly astonishing things. Just ten years after the end of WW2, and just two years after being proposed, Lockheed was flying the U2 at 70,000 feet.

A mere 7 more years passed before the A12 took to the air, and two years after that the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird began flying. Nineteen years after WW2 the Americans had produced the fastest ever operational aircraft in the world, and the highest. It cruised at Mach 3.2 - faster than any other aircraft could sprint - at an altitude of 85,000 feet. It was astonishing, magnificent, extraordinary, glorious, and we're still in 1964!  Several crashed in service or testing, but not one was ever lost to enemy action. It's worth pointing out that - prototypes aside - no operational aircraft has matched or exceeded the altitude and speed records set in the 1960s by the Blackbird. What an amazing achievement.

And of course there's the other thing: the Apollo programme. In less than a decade the US went from a statement of intent to placing a human on the moon and bringing them back again.  Wow.

So the US had one hell of a technological golden age in the decades after WW2. It was more than just unlimited money. There must have been something special going on - a culture of "can do" like we haven't seen before.

I don't know exactly what, or why, it happened. But it was a hell of a thing. As it happens I think the US has peaked already and is now on the way down. My own country - the UK - peaked about about a hundred years earlier and remains about a century ahead of the US in its downward curve.  America is still riding high on that extraordinary wave of achievement, and that is why it provides all the critical electronic design knowledge in the world.

Except it isn't really "all" about the US. Widening the remit to include technology in general, we have: graphene* (UK), Maglev trains (UK, then Japan), 5G (China, South Korea), World Wide Web (CERN), lithium ion batteries (Japan), digital photography (Japan).

*Graphene: a solution looking for a problem for the past 20 years. 

[CatalinaWOW]

I sure hope after 12 pages you guys are close to discovering whether the US provides all critical electronic design knowledge to the world.

Maybe the population is just, on average, smarter than others.  I've heard it argued that most people in Europe during the 16th to 19th centuries lived in abject poverty, but only a subset of them had the balls to walk away from everything they knew, get on a ship to an unknown land, and hope it all turned out alright. Maybe these particular qualities are more prevalent in the US for that reason.

Also, like Australia, the US is tremendously lucky. A relatively small population (for the size of the place) surrounded by vast resources. It must have been easy to generate wealth, and with a small population to share it over, everyone gets rich. Look at Australia: 27 million people sharing a continent bigger than Europe. Dig up some coal and minerals, sell it to the Chinese, and we're all living like royalty.

Something special happened in America after WW2. Their aerospace industry went supernova and achieved some truly astonishing things. Just ten years after the end of WW2, and just two years after being proposed, Lockheed was flying the U2 at 70,000 feet.

A mere 7 more years passed before the A12 took to the air, and two years after that the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird began flying. Nineteen years after WW2 the Americans had produced the fastest ever operational aircraft in the world, and the highest. It cruised at Mach 3.2 - faster than any other aircraft could sprint - at an altitude of 85,000 feet. It was astonishing, magnificent, extraordinary, glorious, and we're still in 1964!  Several crashed in service or testing, but not one was ever lost to enemy action. It's worth pointing out that - prototypes aside - no operational aircraft has matched or exceeded the altitude and speed records set in the 1960s by the Blackbird. What an amazing achievement.

And of course there's the other thing: the Apollo programme. In less than a decade the US went from a statement of intent to placing a human on the moon and bringing them back again.  Wow.

So the US had one hell of a technological golden age in the decades after WW2. It was more than just unlimited money. There must have been something special going on - a culture of "can do" like we haven't seen before.

I don't know exactly what, or why, it happened. But it was a hell of a thing. As it happens I think the US has peaked already and is now on the way down. My own country - the UK - peaked about about a hundred years earlier and remains about a century ahead of the US in its downward curve.  America is still riding high on that extraordinary wave of achievement, and that is why it provides all the critical electronic design knowledge in the world.

Except it isn't really "all" about the US. Widening the remit to include technology in general, we have: graphene* (UK), Maglev trains (UK, then Japan), 5G (China, South Korea), World Wide Web (CERN), lithium ion batteries (Japan), digital photography (Japan).

*Graphene: a solution looking for a problem for the past 20 years. 

While there may be something to the genetic selection argument, and definitely is truth in the population to resources ratio, I really think there was mostly a cultural thing going on in that golden age.  The US was part of the side that came out on top in a massive war, leading to the confidence and can do attitude, along with a comfort in breaking a few eggs to make an omelet.  Most of the population and all of the leadership had survived the pre-war economic disaster and so had a firm grip on the difference between needs and desires.  And the desire to never have to do big war again from scratch led to an intensity in competition with potential rivals.

Most of those drivers have faded into memory.  The few survivors of the depression are no longer leaders.  Same with those who remember the horror and hardship of WWII.  And there was a significant lull in the non-economic competition from abroad.  So now fairness, cleanliness and comfort are the leading values.  Which may be a good thing, but doesn't lead to rapid progress.  Exhibit A is SpaceX being punished for discharging "industrial waste water" which was actually drinking water.  Several months delay will occur in the next Starship flight because of concerns which wouldn't even occurred to the developers of the SR-71 or the Apollo program.

[pqass]

"genetic selection argument" my arse.

A lot of the success started with a giant mountain of (gov't and industry) money sucking talent from the rest of the world starting with Operation Paperclip.   Once through the meat grinder it all becomes American made.

[Simon]

I sure hope after 12 pages you guys are close to discovering whether the US provides all critical electronic design knowledge to the world.