Sure, I'd characterize the creation of the internet as a "waste" as well, I say while typing a message on it. Similarly the social security and medicare that al

Sure, I'd characterize the creation of the internet as a "waste" as well, I say while typing a message on it. Similarly the social security and medicare that allows our grandparents to continue to live without bankrupting us, or forcing us to watch them die. Similarly the healthcare that stops poor people from dying on the street or robbing/killing you and your family out of desperation, and the police that protect your wealth, and the roads you drove on to get to work today, and the regulatory bodies that ensured your car isn't an explosive deathtrap and that you didn't keel over and die this afternoon from the meat in the sandwich you ate for lunch. All wastes. Almost all valuable research cannot be supported by a profit motive; it does not pay off in any reasonable timeline. It is always done by a group with a huge amount of money to waste, like Google, AT&T in the past, the U.S. government. The market is as terrible at creating new and relevant research as it is at creating art. It is an optimization machine that finds local maxima and it is very good at that. The government is literally made of smart people and money.