> pouring more and more money, no matter the source, into politically-connected blackhole businesses contracted to perform some government sponsored task rarel

> pouring more and more money, no matter the source, into politically-connected blackhole businesses contracted to perform some government sponsored task rarely if ever works 1) The evidence is very much to the contrary: Almost all infrastructure in the country was paid for by tax dollars and built on government contracts. The entire highway system, the military, most of the health system, almost all education including public universities, most scientific research, etc. WWII was won that way. What would the country look like if there was no public investment? It would be a poor, undeveloped nation. 2) What alternative is there? Not invest in anything until we live in a perfect world? Again, it would impoverish the country. Blocking investment is a very unwise method of saving money for any institution; imagine a business which refused to invest in anything - it would be insane. 3) I agree there is corruption, and I agree more transparency would help, but every human institution has corruption (go ahead, name a large one that doesn't). If we're going to live with humans, we have no choices other than to move forward as we are or retire to caves.