[donw]

Wow, massive strawman. The government sucks at innovation? Who do you think funded and developed ARPANet? You know, the network we're using to communicate right now. Upon which countless businesses have been built.

Nuclear power? Government. First electronic computer? Government.

Furthermore, when it comes to drug discovery, that 'evil government' has one advantage over businesses, because they have no profit motive. Businesses exist to make money. Period.

No business is going to destroy its market for the sake of the common good. If you're in the business of creating drugs, you aren't going to wipe out a disease with a one-time cure, because drugs are expensive to produce, and palliative treatments are way more profitable.

This is exactly an area where governments do better than businesses, because the reward (improving quality of life) means more votes and support for those in office.

[grandalf]

To paraphrase: The government allocates dollars obtained via taxation to the development of military technology, which often finds unintended peaceful uses.

The scientists who develop military technology (weaponized nuclear, a nuclear-proof decentralized communication grid, code braking machines, etc.) are simply hired to build it or to weaponize promising areas of reasearch.

Anyone with lots of money and the desire to develop powerful weapons would have developed the innovations you cite. To credit "government" implies that something about the government (other than money and the desire for weapons) is responsible for the success.

Any dictator could do precisely the same thing with sufficient money. Fortunately for those of us in the US, our economic system results in incredible wealth, and the taxes generated by it can buy lots of weapons tech.

[dennisgorelik]

Could anyone please point me to government scientific or technology accomplishments in the last 30 years? Something that noticeably improved our quality of life. Something on par with achievements by IBM (Business PC), Microsoft (OS, Office, and other software), Google (search), Apple (smartphones, music, ...), Intel (microprocessors), Pfizer (drugs).

It was surprising to see down-voting just on the basis that you disagree with the idea. Welcome to groupthink.

[sgift]

WWW (1989): Developed at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, a multinational, government-funded research organization.

edit: I've found your post http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1466419 in which you exclude CERN. Could you give an example for a valid organization?

[dennisgorelik]

I just learned what "straw man" logical fallacy is: http://www.csun.edu/~dgw61315/fallacies.html#Straw%20man Do you imply that I put words into someone elses mouth that they did not say?