Imagine the free market purists get their way -- all funds are cut for NOAA and weather prediction is now left to private industry to provide as a service. It

Imagine the free market purists get their way -- all funds are cut for NOAA and weather prediction is now left to private industry to provide as a service. It is an article of faith among many that the free market always produces a better, even optimal, solution. That may be true, but what it is optimizing is profit, which is not a direct measure of the accuracy of the service. For certain market segments, such as farming, there is probably a pretty strong alignment. But what about for, say, answering questions about whether climate change is real? Will we see a market for conservative-aligned weather information providers which delivers the product which the right wants to see? Likewise, will there be markets to provide what the left wants to see? I have a hard time seeing how that is an improvement over what we currently have.