re: The history lesson Americans refuse to accept and keep repeating

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Good point, but you have to give the government credit for some projects that are just out of the scope of the free market such as...

a) The Appolo Moon Project.
b) Interstate Highway System
c) Hoover Dam

There are some projects that are just too damn big and expensive for private enterprise to tackle and to be fair you'll have to give credit where credit is due.

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I used to buy this argument.

I think there is merit to the highway system as it is a way to connect and benefit all states. It didn't involve picking a winner. There wasn't a question of "can highways be built?" or "who should we fund to invent a highway?" They had already been developed and the federal government essentially bought a lot of an already developed product.

I'm not sure we can compare these to R&D for products and services.

For every one "free market solution" Wright Bros story, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of advancements that were only made possible due to government investment (especially in universities).

"look at this one specific example of this one thing to make a larger point that doesn't actually hold true" = this argument and most people who post FB memes and use that as their source of news.

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For every one "free market solution" Wright Bros story, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of advancements that were only made possible due to government investment (especially in universities).

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While the government has played a role, your ratio (1:1000) is grossly inaccurate.

In fact, your statement is a shocking admittance of ideology. You are essentially saying that government management of the economy is 100 times more effective than free enterprise.

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In fact, your statement is a shocking admittance of ideology. You are essentially saying that government management of the economy is 100 times more effective than free enterprise

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Not what I said, but am illustrating what a terrible example the wright bros would be to use for "free market solutions". Research/Discovery is not "management of the economy", and I never made that implication.

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your ratio (1:1000) is grossly inaccurate

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Not really. Just look at the number of patents owned by universities.

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lasers, FM radio, magnetic resonance imaging, global positioning systems, bar codes, the algorithm for Google, the fetal monitor, the nicotine patch, antibiotics, the Richter Scale, Buckyballs and nanotechnology, the discovery of the insulin gene, the origin of computers, of bioengineering through the discovery of recombinant DNA, transistors, improved weather forecasting, cures for childhood leukemia, the pap smear, scientific agriculture

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Shite, fricking Gatorade was only made possible due to research at a University (funded by government grants)

Microsoft/Bill Gates only exist because of prior research done at Universities

I think if you all dug down a little deeper, you would realize my point in largely correct. It is one of the larger unknowns in american society.

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The more I look into your point the more I realize how many more and better advancements we could have if all that money was never given to the government and people used that money to fund research/companies on their own. We could probably have invested 10x the amount of money into research if it didn't go through the government first.

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Interesting theory, but I seriously doubt it. If your theory was true, we would see a large number of major technological advances/discoveries from countries that don't invest in higher ed/research. That isn't really the case.

Incorrect. It would require a country with minimal taxes and plenty of smart, hard working people to test my theory.

Simon Sinek tells this story on a TEDtalk from 2010 as well.

Simon Sinek - Getting to WHY

Great video on Leadership.