# A123.. another social engineering project gone wrong \[gov't investment in lithium ion battery maker\]

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a123-another-social-engineering-project-gone-wrong-govt-investment-in-lithium-ion-battery-maker/637912>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [October 16, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a123-another-social-engineering-project-gone-wrong-govt-investment-in-lithium-ion-battery-maker/637912 "2012-10-16T18:51:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a123-another-social-engineering-project-gone-wrong-govt-investment-in-lithium-ion-battery-maker/637912/101 "2012-10-22T16:23:45Z")

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China isn’t going green only for financial reasons. They have a pretty bad pollution problem from burning all that coal.

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**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2012, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a123-another-social-engineering-project-gone-wrong-govt-investment-in-lithium-ion-battery-maker/637912/102 "2012-11-03T15:02:37Z")

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> [@A\_nice\_guy\_with\_an\_opinion](#):
>
> I would have preferred that the company made its own way. I don’t want the government to pick losers and losers.

> [@Chimera](#):
>
> Yes yes, the Government should NEVER fund new technologies. Everyone knows that the Invisible Hand of the Free Market creates them from whole cloth and provides the funding when such things are needed!

Speaking of whole cloth, industrialisation would have been severely hampered if the UK parliament did not buy the patent for the self-acting mule.

On the other hand, making things up from whole cloth?

The German Green party being responsible for the phase out of nuclear energy would be an example. In fact, the announcement was made by the [Minister for Environment](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Germany#Decision_to_abandon_nuclear_power), a member of the Christian Democratic Union (a member of the International Democrat Union along with the Republican Party of the United States).

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**Author:** ![A\_nice\_guy\_with\_an\_opinion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@A\_nice\_guy\_with\_an\_opinion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_nice_guy_with_an_opinion)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a123-another-social-engineering-project-gone-wrong-govt-investment-in-lithium-ion-battery-maker/637912/103 "2012-11-05T10:07:35Z")

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Green China?  
Please don’t tell me the punchline…I don’t think I can take it!

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