[amelius]

> If the government can efficiently run an industry as complicated as drug development, shouldn’t it be able to efficiently run every other industry as well? If you could squeeze out Facebook’s 30% profit margins by nationalizing the web tech industry, without any adverse consequences, I fail to see why you wouldn’t do so.

I think the answer lies outside the realm of the economy. Many people seek meaning and purpose in their lives and jobs, and for instance many universities in the world are essentially state-run. You can't really ignore the effectiveness of this arrangement.

I think the same would hold for medical/pharmaceutical institutes, whereas something like Facebook would, in this light, be a totally different thing.

[rayiner]

Except the university departments that do produce technology generally are tightly integrated with industry. How many Stanford and MIT professors and graduate students launched startups? And what would happen to that system if there was no exist into the private sector?

[amelius]

This might be true in the US, but in Europe there are far less ties between industry and academia.

[s1artibartfast]

I think the more relevant example is how the US manages investment in critical transportation infrastructure, and that doesnt even require innovation.