Essay X: Money and Innovation.

- Thoughts on the relationship between money and Innovation -

Essay for the University of Michigan 

Innovation is a process that does not last a year, or five but it is an ongoing quest that could take a lifetime. Behind every innovation, there are many things: The innovator and his/her idea, the will of developing an idea and the tools the innovator may need to bring the idea to reality. But there's also a key factor an innovator should keep in mind: Money. Through human history, we could see many cases of people being benefactors or patrons of innovators, no matter the area of expertise of the innovator.

We know the cases of Leonardo Da Vinci being supported financially by the Medici family, and many cases of great composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Stravinsky being supported financially by people who admired their work. Without the support these brilliant artists received, we may have missed some of the greatest artistical and philosophical innovations of the last 600 years.

Scienctific Innovators have received financial support just like their art colleagues as well. One of the most notorious cases was Nikola Tesla, who was financially supported by J.P. Morgan and John Jacob Astor IV while building the Wardenclyffe Tower in order to be an infinite supply of electric energy using wireless technology. While Morgan and Astor cut Tesla's income and discouraged anyone interested in funding Tesla's effort, Tesla's Wardenclyffe tower never reached it's true potential. Sometimes I wonder what the world could be nowadays if Tesla's Wardenclyffe project came fully operational.

Sometimes I wonder as well, if our governments choose to increase taxes and low people's income, in order to cut their innovation-related thoughts, and keep us chained in dead-end jobs. The less resources people have access to, the less innovation we will see in our society.