I think you are vastly overestimating how much in the way of taxpayer dollars were spent on these sorts of programs, particularly in the case of private univers

I think you are vastly overestimating how much in the way of taxpayer dollars were spent on these sorts of programs, particularly in the case of private universities, such as Harvard. This reminds me of foreign aid, which the public perceives as being a large part of the U.S. federal budget, when it's less than 1%.