[ForHackernews]

> These programs offer grants and other benefits to 'the right kind of startups' - usually ones that are fashionable because the subject is currently hyped - ai, climate change, etc.

As opposed to the American VC model currently driving such vital innovations as "how do we make middle class people use a jitney cab service?", "what if short term office leases came with free beer?", "will lazy people pay to have food delivered?" and "oh will they pay to have other stuff delivered, too?"

Look, I kind of get what you're saying, but it's not as if US startups are immune from bragging about "changing the world" and I'm more willing to put up with that bragging if you're at least trying to solve an actual hard problem.

The government should be funding crazy blue-sky long shots like small-scale fusion reactors and surgical nanobots because nobody else will. It's hard to make money on that kind of thing in the short- to medium-term but if it came to fruition, it really would be transformative.