The country that does not, invented more or less every modern technology (transistors, ICs, wifi, microwaves, cellular). Mayhaps there is something to it.
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You didn't invent microwaves. Well, your lot invented the klystron. Know what a klystron is? No? Well there you are.
But I bet you know what the cavity magnetron - invented in Scotland - is. You probably used one today already.
Cellular phones were invented in the UK and Finland. The US didn't even have them until the first couple of generations were obsolete here.
Transistors were invented in Germany, although they were made practical in the US, I'll them that.
> Cellular phones were invented in the UK and Finland. The US didn't even have them until the first couple of generations were obsolete here.
That was before Martin Cooper's cell phone in 1973?
also jet engine
discovered penicillin
Tarmac, the breech-loading rifle, the first practicable television system even if it wasn't very good, pneumatic tyres...
You are wrong
Most of those things were invented by a company granted a government monopoly on communications and not allowed to directly profit off of any of those advances.
AT&T threw money at smart people and said, "Do stuff. Then we'll see if we can use it"
No one does that anymore.
The big one on the list that wasn't AT&T was microwaves and that was a contractor to Nasa [0] in the heat of the moon race and a similar "Do stuff. Then we'll see if we can use it" mandate.
[0] Defense contractor Raytheon most specifically.
I think that's one thing people truly forget when they ask "Why can't we do things like this anymore?"
AT&T paid people to fuck around. Claude Shannon, father of Information Theory, founder of Artificial Intelligence, and namesake to Anthropic's flagship product, was also busy building flame-throwing trumpets and rocket frisbees while creating entire new fields.
So why can't I order a rocket frisbee today? Wtf America.