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Comment by bigphishy | Hacker News Reader

Precisely right, look at Bell Labs, look what came out of that! transistors, tcp/ip, satellites, cellphones just to name a few. thank god for bell labs and the state approved monopoly that allowed bell labs to fund science without profits, although it didn't hurt that they also gathered the brightest minds in the country at that time.

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Pointing out of the one brilliant jewel in government spending is absurd compared to all the wasted endeavors. I have lost faith in the governments ability to spend my money wisely.

We are talking about the same government who infected black men with syphilis just to see what would happen. Also dosed random POCs with LSD for the same reasoning.

Oh, but Bell Labs so it’s all good.

That would be like saying venture capital is a waste of economic resources because most start ups fail. We should take risk knowing that failure is a part of the path to learning. Government has demonstrated clear ability to spur innovation through investment. American has a successful market economy specifically because of a good active government not in spite of it.

Wrong. It’s like saying a certain venture capital firm is a waste because they have a decades long history of making disastrous choices.

But government doesn’t have a decade of disaster it has produced the most productive dynamic economy in history, massive amounts of technology and global corporate infrastructure. Focusing on the failures in the portfolio while ignoring the clear successes like the federal highway system, the internet, GPS, space travel etc is willful blindness.

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