[killjoywashere]

World’s smallest fiddle. All the cyber talent is going to industry already because the popular mythology says government employees are shit and shouldn’t make a dollar. I’ll bet there are some politicians (and voters) who would go so far as to say government employees should pay the government for the privilege of working.

Meanwhile, the high risk basic R&D spend that underpins many US businesses (including most grad student salaries and research grants) is from the US Government. Every time one of those fails (Solyndra) the press points it out as a failure of government. Every time it succeeds (SpaceX) it’s attributed to the scrappy entrepreneur and the government subsidy be damned.

The risk is socialized onto the taxpayer and the gains are privatized to the very rich. Look at the iPhone: internet (DARPA), cellular (developed to Army requirements based on Vietnam radio problems), GPS (DoD), multitouch (University of Delaware on an NSF grant). How about the Sand Hill boys spend some of that money on security instead of inflating Atherton real estate prices and laundering money through modern art auctions?