Geraldine Ferraro Quotes
It was not so very long ago that people thought that semiconductors were part-time orchestra leaders and microchips were very small snack foods.
Ferraro, Geraldine. Campaign Speech, 1984.
This quotation is important because it illustrates the important research and development role that the Government has played for the most important technological innovations of the second half of the 20th century. Even though most of the computer breakthroughs were developed by private companies, the government paid for most of the R&D and purchased the vast majority of the first computers on the market when private companies had not yet realized the value of computers and with the exception of IBM most of the private sector would invest no money in this unproven technology. This was the same as the telegraph, the railroads and others before and the Internet and more afterward.
Geraldine Anne Ferraro was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney. She served in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1985, and was the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee in 1984, running alongside former vice president Walter Mondale; this made her the first female vice-presidential nominee representing a major American political party. She was also a journalist, author, and businesswoman.
