Last night the topic on Radio National’s Australia Talks was innovation. The blurb reads as follows:

>>Australia is not as innovative as other developed countries, a recent government report has found. Yet experts agree that our economic future after the mining boom will depend on innovation and entrepreneurship. So what's preventing innovation here and how can we encourage Australians to think up and invest in bright ideas.>>

See: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/australiatalks/stories/2011/3291151.htm

One very rough widely used measure of a country’s innovativeness is the number of patents registered in the USA. I ranked selected countries by US patents per million of population and per billion of GDP. Here are the rankings:

1 Taiwan 417.6 (patents per million of population)
2 Japan 371.4
3 Korea 256.5
4 Israel 256.5
5 Germany 167.3
6 Canada 162.0
7 Singapore 133.5
8 Australia 95.5
9 UK 80.4
10 France 78.1
11 Italy 36.9
12 China 2.5
13 Brazil 1.1
14 India 1.0
15 Turkey 0.6
16 Indonesia 0.0

By this measure Australia ranks ahead UK, France and Italy but way behind the top 3 (Taiwan, Japan, Korea)

Obviously wealthier countries should have more innovation. How do we do if we measure patents per billion dollars of GDP?

1 Taiwan 22.4 (patents be billion of GDP)
2 Korea 12.4
3 Israel 9.0
4 Japan 8.6
5 Germany 4.8
6 Canada 3.5
7 Singapore 2.8
8 UK 2.2
9 France 2.0
10 Australia 1.7
11 Italy 1.1
12 India 0.7
13 China 0.6
14 Brazil 0.1
15 Turkey 0.1
16 Indonesia 0.0

NB: I have used market exchange rates, not purchasing power parity, for the GDP numbers.

We are again way behind the top 3 (Taiwan, Korea, Israel). In fact we are definitely punching below our weight.

I’ve taken population and GDP data from the CIA World Factbook.

You may find the patent data here:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/cst_utl.htm

It’s not all bad news. The number of Australian patents filed in the US is increasing rapidly. But so is the number filed by the top 3

How can we improve Australian innovativeness?

We make plenty of patents and inventors- sadly our governments are too busy sending $1000 bribes to bogans to make any real effort to assist or build markets with our best and brightest.
I mean, an Australian man built a revolutionary new weapons system that could fire a million bullets per minute with no moving parts (thus has absolutely no chance of breaking down or jamming)- he showed it to the Australian government, and they TURNED IT DOWN- so he went to America to make the contracts instead and now, what could have been OUR export, is now basically operating in America in conjunction with American arms manufacturers.

I can honestly say that if we had made any real attempt to start putting these products to serious manufacturing, Australia might have actually returned to being an exporter once again.

And we wonder why we have a 'brain drain'.

King Hazza wrote:

>>...sadly our governments are too busy sending $1000 bribes to bogans to make any real effort to assist or build markets with our best and brightest.>>>

I can't help thinking that with that one comment you encapsulate part of the problem. Australians seem to have a mindset that it's up to the government to, well, to do something.

Where are the Australian venture capitalists?

Where are the Australian companies ready to take a punt on new technology?

I suggest that the real issue is not government's unwillingness to help, but the absence of a risk-taking culture in Australian business. And by a "risk taking culture" I don't mean taking a punt on dodgy derivatives; I mean investing in real products.

In the US, for all its faults, that culture still exists.

The question should be about how much Australia is subduing the motivations and interest of entrepreneurs in doing something original. People are naturally creative, it follows from their curiosity. But when children are not encouraged to develop their talents they become less interested in creativity and the thoughts that precede it. It is a matter of education and the countries at the top of the list have the kinds of education facilities which may not be academic so much as capable of encouraging thinking on all levels.

Many of the innovative the things we do are not patented nor do they need to be, so this criterion for inovation is very rough and crude and innacurate.

"""
The question should be about how much Australia is subduing the motivations and interest of entrepreneurs in doing something original.
"""

That's it in a nutshell!

Just try to do something here if you're a little guy or a kid and then walk away in disgust at all the rules, regulations and bureaucracy you have to wade through before you can get started!

People look at America and how innovative they are, well of course they are, they promote it and you can get your hands on whatever you need and how much you need without some bureaucrat asking you a million questions and making you fill out a million forms and making you jump through a million hoops!!

20 years ago I innovated and started a high tech local and export, manufacturing business that went on to be extremely successful. Today, to start that same business is not possible unless your already rich, so why bother?

Australia, the land of the stifled!

most of the inventions of man
come via the spirit..but which..*inventions
much depends..on mans mindset

[thus as much..the man
as the idea]

lest we forget
the patent clerk..[ein-stein]

i note this

""The chafing Zionist-Christians..and evangelists
no longer have patience to wait..for doomsday.

This is the day,..according to their faith,
we shall happily perish in;

most of the Jews will die in Armageddon
the final battle..of between good and evil..against them,
just so that Jesus,..OUR*..savior,..may finally rise from the *dead.

And the handful..who survive
will carry out the thousand-year vision..
by accepting the rule of another faulse MATERIALISTIC..*God.

This is the vision that rabbis,..settlers and other sorts of nationalist zealots..are cooperating with..and spreading a red carpet at the next faulse messiah’s feet.""

jesus came and returned
back to the fathers heaven

never/the-less

lets hear what he would say
if his..creative/INventive..imagination was set to work..

on this day

to quote saul/paul..""they are a law..for themselves,
even though..they do not have the law.

15 They show that..the requirements of the law
are written on their hearts,..their consciences
also bearing witness, and their thoughts..sometimes accusing them..and at other times even defending them.)

16 This will take place..on the day
when God judges people’s secrets..through Jesus Christ,..as my gospel declares.

The Jews
and the Law

17 Now you,if you call yourself a Jew;
if you rely on the law..[oe science of man]..and boast in God;

18 if you know his will..and approve of what is superior
because*..you are instructed by the law;

19 if you are convinced..that you are a guide for the blind,
a light for those who are in the dark,..20 an instructor of the foolish,..a teacher of little children,..because you have in the law

*the embodiment of knowledge and truth—*

21 you,then, who teach others,
do you not teach yourself?

You who preach..against stealing,..do you steal?
the land of the semite..[palestinian]..the patent of other?

22 You who say..that people should not commit adultery,..
do you commit adultery?

[ie adulterate the words/meaning..INVENTION of the messiah's
unto men AND the law of good..[of god]..[holy spirit]