3 Examples of Americans who were highly motivated to do great things for the free world, not for money or the profit motive, but because they wanted to make a great contribution to our society:
1. Jonas Salk. A doctor who developed the vaccine for polio. Had he sold his invention, he could have been fabulously wealthy. Instead, he gave it away for free. When asked "Who owns this patent?", Salk replied, "Well, the people I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?" The vaccine is calculated to be worth $7 billion had it been patented. An unabashed capitalist would consider this genius an idiot.
2. Alfred Loomis. A Lt Col in WWI, he later became an investment banker in the 1920's investing in the electric companies which were establishing the electrical grid in the USA. He correctly foresaw the coming crash and in 1928 liquidated everything. Then, after the crash he became very wealthy buying up devalued stocks when nobody else had the cash to do it. Then, he took his considerable wealth and funded his own state of the art science lab which was superior to most universities. There, with a team he hired, he developed RADAR, LORAN, and Radar-guidance for automatic AA guns which were instrumental in winning WWII. He didn't do it for the money. He used his own money. He did it because he wanted to make this contribution to the free world. His weapons were instrumental in the defense of Britain from the German Luftwaffe.
3. Nikola Tesla. An inventor who first developed the AC electrical motor. He never worried about trying to sell his invention. He figured Thomas Edison would know how to do that, as he greatly admired Edison. He went to work with Edison and told him of his invention, and how superior AC Power was to DC Power, because AC Power could be transmitted over far greater distances without voltage loss. Edison had already invested heavily in DC Power, so he tried to discourage Tesla. Tesla quit and sought someone to fund his project. George Westinghouse took him up on it, but insisted Tesla give him all the rights for a one-time price. Had Tesla simply asked for a small royalty on the future profits of AC Power, he would have been fabulously wealthy, but Tesla agreed to Westinghouse's offer. Tesla, you see, just wanted his invention to get used for good. Westinghouse, of course, was the one to get fabulously rich from DC Power. Tesla simply wanted to go on working on new projects to help the public, which he did.
None of these 3 people were motivated to do what they did by the profit motive. They all shared a simple desire to advance technology to help the free world. Seeing their work do good was enough of a reward for them. The story of Tesla and Edison is remarkable. Edison was the capitalist. He did what he did for money. Tesla didn't care about profits. Edison was the fool who let Tesla slip through his fingers because he was too greedy to give up on a profit-producing DC Power system he had already developed. Had he looked at Tesla's invention with an open mind, he would have realized he needed to give up on DC Power, which was only capable of providing electrical power for a few blocks nearby a generating station, and developed what Tesla had. Too bad he just couldn't think big enough. He was constrained by the shackles of the profit motive.
Personal Ignore Policy PIP: I like civil discourse. I will give you all the respect in the world if you respect me. Mouth off to me, or express overt racism, you will be PERMANENTLY Ignore Listed. Zero tolerance. No exceptions. I'll never read a word you write, even if quoted by another, nor respond to you, nor participate in your threads. ... Ignore the shallow. Cherish the thoughtful. Long Live Civil Discourse, Mutual Respect, and Good Debate! ps: Feel free to adopt my PIP. It works well.
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