For a long time, we’ve argued that our government is stuck in the 20th century, but Peter Thiel—founder of Paypal and early investor in Facebook—thinks it’s even worse than that. According to Thiel, when it comes to technology, government is stuck in the “Middle Ages.”
“It’s very hard to get reasonable science, reasonable technology policy,” Thiel said in the Wall Street Journal. In an earlier interview with the Hoover Institution, he said, “one of the reasons it’s been hard to do things in the world of atoms is that it’s very heavily regulated. It’s hard to build a new nuclear power plant. It’s hard to build a rocket. Supersonic airplanes are too loud. New drugs cost a billion dollars to get through the FDA…. There are these political issues that have slowed us down.”
In our daily lives, we have grown accustomed to ease, convenience, and clarity. We expect accountability and basic competency from just about every organization we deal with. Why, then, should we expect less from our government? The House had already worked to modernize our government by passing a bill to reform the VA and others to make the bureaucracy work better and more efficiently, and we will continue to make government up-to-date in this coming Congress.
Americans can get the jobs they need, build economic security for themselves and their families, and pursue even greater dreams if the government stops hobbling them with antiquated policies from yesteryear. It’s long past time we remove the obstacles to opportunity and bring government into the 21st century.