> it makes no sense for Germany to compete with France and the United Kingdom [...] A better plan would be to establish a new pan-European [...] I am an outsid

> it makes no sense for Germany to compete with France and the United Kingdom [...] A better plan would be to establish a new pan-European [...] I am an outsider, but this sounds like a naive perspective. Competing locally has survival-of-the-fittest strategy that then can compete globally. However, taking public sector funds and treating these efforts as essentially government institutions that have an explicit goal of competing globally, you lose the organic growth and proof of value the market could otherwise help you decide. The article makes a point that Silicon Valley is built with public funds, but to anyone really paying attention, it is clear it (and several other tech centers nationwide) is driven by private capital and grows with it. Same in many other states/cities that have thriving ecosystems. Imagine if policy shifted towards large amounts of public funds with the explicit goal of cross-state cooperation for global competition. That is just a government institution at that point, not grants. I dub these policies "Envy-Based Funding" and I would be upset at my state/city using such large amounts of funds purely as a naive attempt to mimic SV.