This little tangent got me thinking. The US and the Soviets both had excellent publicly funded basic research. I can't deny that the Soviets were also very good at aerospace, metallurgy, and certain other basic scientific pursuits. Yet, we really capitalized on the discoveries of basic research and used it to benefit mankind, while making lots of $$$. The Soviets--not so much. Despite much advancement in pure science, they failed to bring the benefits to their economy and capitalize on it. Sooooooooooo... Basic scientific research (without known present-day economic benefits) -- fund publicly, mostly through universities. Some large labs (Bell, big chemical cos, etc. will also have the capital to fund much of their own basic research as well). Applications of discoveries made in basic research -- sell or license the patents to the private sector which is much better at the economic development of science. This sort of thing has worked out pretty well so far. Publicly funded basic science research is very important. Add in the public-private consortiums and technology incubators, like at Stanford/Silicon Valley, UT's Kozmetsky IC squared institute, and at Rice to aid in transferring the basic science discoveries to companies that can capitalize on it, and you've got a winning formula. Note, this is not the same thing as government picking winners. The gov't funds basic science, the companies pick and choose what they want to license from what's been discovered. Side note: China's devious short-cut plan--let others spend the $ on basic research, then steal it and/or ignore the patents.
Roads and railroads have been built by private funding too. However, governments crowded out private interests for road building. It is a myth that we have to have a government fund road building. It is a myth that we have to have government fund scientific research. The government's involvement crowds out private interests from doing the same thing. To believe otherwise is to think that humans are somehow against understanding the world and how to use science to do more and more things. The government didn't always fund research. The Scientific and Industrial Revolutions didn't happen because the government came up with the great idea of funding science. It came about because humans are curious and want to do more and more. Newton, Bacon, Edison, etc. Not funded by government.
