[stefantalpalaru]

They only stopped introducing errors in the signal after the threat of a competing system became real. The interests of US military are simply not aligned with those of civilians around the world. The sooner we get rid of our dependency on their technology, the better.

See what happened to the Internet. Because we kept relying on it, we're now all living in East Germany under the watchful eye of a new and improved STASI.

[mikeash]

Right, but the claim was that without the involvement of the US military, we'd have been better off. Which then means that either somebody else would have paid for a better GPS system, or that some other system would have been put up and operational by 2000. So, like I asked: which alternative system would have been ready by 2000 if not for the US military, or what other entity would have paid for GPS if not the US military?