I believe shopping this assertion around a social science department (or economics, if we’re not calling that social science) would yield a rather more nuanced view.
The internet was subsidized....
no, it was invented at UCLA and Stanford and financed by what is now modern DARPA. It wasn’t a matter of financing, it was a matter of national security. we are subsidizing plenty of advanced technology that puts us on the bleeding edge of military, but that doesn’t mean they wouldnt find private funding