Google (yes, Alphabet) joined the grand party when it shot over $2 trillion: “Google parent Alphabet Inc. rallied Monday to breach $2 trillion in market value for the first time, fueled by a rebound in spending on digital ads and growth in its cloud business.” As you look at these companies, I can explain how American senators made them possible through policies. Yes, they began and then the government came to make them better. (That has been the pattern, going back to Carnegie, Mellon and other titans of American capitalism.)
Google was possible because of the Bayh-Dole Act. The landmark Act celebrated my quote on its Washington DC-based website – “For me, the Bayh-Dole Act is the most important business legislation of the last century in the United States. And this is the American Congress at its very best moment. It delivered through the legislature, and transformed the pace of innovation by providing a fluidic system that enhances U.S competitiveness.” https://autm.net/about-tech-transfer/advocacy/legislation/bayh-dole-act
Amazon would not have worked if not that US Congress waived collection of sales taxes from ecommerce firms thereby making everything bought online cheaper. In other words, if you buy a dishwasher for $1,000 from your physical store, you will be off by $1,100 if sales tax is 10%. But on Amazon, you will pay only $1,000. Because of that, US used tax policy to change purchasing habits, creating a new industry called ecommerce sector. Simply, everyone bought online to save that 10% – and the government knew people were not paying those taxes.
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Tesla would have died if not for the EV vehicle tax credits. Facebook? Online portals got waivers on secondary contents they host. Indeed, there are clear paths on how policies made these firms better. I can keep going.
This is the deal: Nigeria needs pioneering innovators along with brilliant parliamentarians who can see the big picture to redesign our industries to advance the wealth of the nation. The innovators are working, may 2023 bring these great leaders.
The US did not care about the old retails leaders like JCPenney when Amazon was coming. Yes, America disrupted itself and today it is better.
By next year, I expect four of their firms to be in that 2T club; it did not happen by luck: they made it possible.
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There are many ways of looking at these things, our challenge is that we neither have the capacity nor the quality of thinking needed to function at this level.
You may think that the innovators are working, but it’s still ephemeral, the legislation cannot work, because no matter what they craft there, as long as capability is in short supply, it won’t fly.
For you to have Google, there was emergence of internet, for Apple, you need semiconductor fabricator, for Amazon, a viable aerospace sector, plus land and rail infrastructures. Those support systems might not get valuations in trillions, but they are structures upon which the tech behemoth are built.
In Nigeria, we want people to dish kerosene and firewood for gas, but we lacked the capacity to make gas available and affordable at scale; so even with fantastic legislation, market reality will bring you back to earth, because you never prepared the ground for your celestial legislation.
We want to discourage too much cash and encourage cashless economy, but we cannot do without charges, so we are essentially asking people to move to where they will be taxed more, rather than less, we are that strange.
Have we built the hard layers to support the flagship tech firms?
Quite an outstanding write up.