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Forbes Publisher Rich Karlgaard on why Facebook doesn’t represent the kind of innovation that is needed in the U.S.
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Book of course in the spotlight today as -- eight year old company begins trading publicly but we have someone who says the US should be looking beyond FaceBook for innovation or else.
Rich -- guard is publisher of Forbes magazine joins us now rich.
Good -- -- also store Forbes on fox and another network on 11 AM on Saturday.
-- but it was a piece in the Wall Street Journal -- caught our attention which you say FaceBook really doesn't represent the kind of innovation we need right now why not.
Well look -- let's congratulate FaceBook on their enormous success sound.
But if all we get in the future is these kind of -- companies based on cleverly written code.
They create essentially entertainment sites.
Or code that is used for financial instruments.
Then we're not gonna move forward as a nation because most of us live in a world where we.
Are transported we eat things we live in the house we've got to change the real physical world.
And unfortunately our tax code in our highly complex regulatory system.
Has had the effect of driving the smartest people people like Mark Zuckerberg and the late Steve Jobs and so forth into doing you know go away from these great.
Industries that need transformational like transportation power generation food production water delivering rich let me let me just stop -- because sometimes companies morph into other things they start -- with a simple bottle and it becomes more complex perhaps FaceBook.
Will become -- -- and perhaps they will provide some some idea or innovation with regard to energy your transportation -- something else eventually.
It's possible you know if you look at Google I think the most interesting thing out of Google right now.
Is -- robot driven car malaria in 2008 when they start when they started the project could barely get around Taiwan's in a parking lot.
This year can race over mountain passes.
No driver behind the -- this is amazing stuff this is -- kind of innovation we need you know the Boeing 747.
Was first put into service.
In 1969.
You know this is it it just shows -- in the world of aviation we haven't seen a lot of progress.
On in a long time.
That you don't it's interesting though you mentioned regulation I'm wondering if companies like Google get into transportation and maybe FaceBook gets it is something like transportation or energy.
Whether or not regulators will come men and stop it from innovating in those new areas.
While yet.
I think that's -- happened without even I mean it just it's happened without.
Even a national discussion about it.
That the brightest people over the last two decades have gone into two things they've gone into doing very clever financial instruments and they've gone into doing the kinds of -- algorithmic codes or software that is created operating systems for Smartphones that's pretty cool FaceBook that's pretty cool.
But it doesn't do the big heavy lifting.
That China and Brazil and other countries are doing right now and if we don't get -- innovative in those sectors as we are Silicon Valley and Wall Street.
I think we fall behind as a country in the decades ahead OK -- It finally couldn't couldn't FaceBook becomes some kind of some kind of new breakthrough platform for advertise were always talking about whether.
Advertising eventually will find its way onto the Internet like it is on television or whether.
We can sell contents.
On the Internet which so -- -- the holy Grail we have been able achieve I mean may be.
Maybe FaceBook will provide a platform for votes.
Yeah again it could -- and all of this is good -- you know as -- your colleague -- -- McDonald likes to say about apple for all that it's done you can't eat an iPad.
And so we still have all these other sectors whether it's electricity generation.
Construction.
Transportation.
You know that still need -- radical overhaul if America's going to be is competitive in the decades ahead.
As it's -- in the past and I really think it's a corporate income tax in a regulatory problem.
If we simplified though is -- we're going to get all this genius the Steve Jobs is in the Mark Zuckerberg it's toward other things decent beyond just Silicon Valley that's -- hope.
Rich Carl guard publisher of Forbes magazine we'll see -- -- mar 11 AM on Forbes on fox and Fox News -- thanks rich.
