It has been sold out. The business model that seems to be in vogue in recent years emphasizes short-term, quick profits, inflating share prices (which makes bonuses offered in the form of stock options pay off) by whatever means are handy and quick, avoiding risk, and avoiding long-term investment. These latter two contribute most directly to the decline in R&D activities.
I see it a lot in the field that I work in, which often involves purchase of state-of-the-art scientific instrumentation. Time was there were companies competing for these niche markets and they did so by innovating and offering improved products and services to customers. What we've seen lately is not so much innovation and building better products as companies gathering enough capital to buy out their competitors and thus avoid having to innovate and build better products. They simply buy out the competition and take their (often better) products off the market.
And, for the free marketeers out there, no, I can't start my own business and offer those better products and services to the market. You're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars just in startup costs alone to develop these products. Not the kind of thing you do in your garage. But time was companies like Hewlett-Packard and Bell Labs used to, but not anymore (sold out).
Don't forget the part where the senior executives then use that temporary boost to the bottom line to coast to better jobs elsewhere, leaving the mid- and lower-level employees to clean up the mess they made.
Another chimera. This has always been the case when it comes to publicly traded companies. American businesses have always been oriented towards short term, as opposed to European ones, for instance (and where did it get them). Long-term planning is a dream of every rational human being, as you undoubtedly are --- it is really intellectually appealing. Nobody has ever been able to implement it, however, and many slided into socialism. By being short-term oriented, American businesses remain agile and are FORCED to respond quickly to changing circumstances. Long-term planners cannot.
Finally, you misplace the blame: it is the investors that put pressure on short-term performance, and management merely responds to it.
emphasizes short-term, quick profits, inflating share prices You cannot "inflate" share prices: you can make shares worthy of being purchased. You may want to be aware of the fact that this is precisely what management was hired to do. Just like you, it is merely doing its job.
>(which makes bonuses offered in the form of stock options pay off)
This is socialist garbage, please excuse me. Again, even if it were true, why would boards continue to pay those bonuses? Why would the investment community not be able to see through the profits that you claim to be artificial.
Like many, you appear to view management as following some self-serving goals. This is patently false.
by whatever means are handy and quick, avoiding risk,
How have you determined they that avoid risk?
and avoiding long-term investment. How have you determined that?
These latter two contribute most directly to the decline in R&D activities. R&D investment is much like you savings for Christmas presents: as much as you want to make nice gifts, you do it only to the extent that you can afford. The same is with R&D in companies.
When was the last time you saw your companies accounting books?
Ding! We have a winner!
I've noted for some time that US corporations no longer give any thought to what used to be called the "greater social good." Now we have the specter of firms like Tyson's, Enron, and WorldCom. Businessmen of the last generation were generally more honorable than today.