Algorithm that led to Google's success funded by PUBLIC sector National Science Foundation grant.

[snagglepuss]

"How many people," she writes, "know that the algorithm that led to Google's success was funded by a public sector National Science Foundation grant? Or that molecular antibodies, which provided the foundation for biotechnology before venture capital moved into the sector, were discovered in public Medical Research Council labs in the UK?"


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/29/capitalism-lefties-clueless-emma-harrison

[JDPriestly]

1. Of course!!!

Personally, I think this is great -- as long as private businesses give credit to the government for the boost it gives them. The creativity of a company like Google and the marketing savvy is useful.

What I don't like is the cannibalization of traditionally government functions by businesses that present themselves as being "private." They are not adding anything to our economy. They are just transferring costs from the public sector to the private sector. It's kind of a national accounting gimmick.

Rarely do these cannibals do anything better than the government did.

One example is the privatization of military support -- provisions of meals and that sort of thing.

We have increasingly privatized these functions since WWII. And the performance of our military has declined since we began privatizing them. The decline in performance may not be a necessary result of privatization, but so far it appears to be a common if not prevailing result.