Charles,

>>The point is not about the most advanced technology, but how you apply it. This not only applies to space technology but also other fields where the russian certainly were not stupid: Medical.

>Of course working with nuclear stuff is a little easier if you are willing to completely lay waste to a portion of your country considerably larger than Holland and poison generations of your people while failing to deliver the most basic goods and services and funneling most of your resources to a cynical kleptocracy. <g>

>BTW for all the "medical achievements" do some research on how many hospitals in the USSR did not even have hot water.

I won't disagree with the point that the dramatic economical collapse to the sovjet empire is due to the total mismanagement and suppression of their own people, but to me that is a total different argument having nothing to do with the application of technology in itself.

FWIW, the same could be applied in (much) a lesser extent to the american healthcare system: Technologically the most advanced, yet 45 million (or more) do not have access to it, other than emergency care.

Again, it is about the achievements you can make with the available technology. Many things are invented and/or exploited in the US (not seldomly only for commercial reasons) but really get applied elsewhere on a much bigger scale. For example, electronic banking. Something that has been common good for as long as I can remember (I'm 35), yet in NA paper paychecks are a regular thing. I've never seen one up here. Internet/electronic banking (I have been doing for about 13 years) or even other internet services up here, really took off. My wife is a handling tax submissions for a large number of small clients. All is automated. Virtually nothing is going on paper anymore. The same applies to a lot of governmental services up here.

Back to the subject. It is not so much what programming language you are using, as long as the solution impresses and provides great benefits to your clients.