I think we should have an National Science Foundation level federal institution for free software. Stallman advocated for this early on I think. The NSF funds f

I think we should have an National Science Foundation level federal institution for free software. Stallman advocated for this early on I think. The NSF funds fundamental research to the benefit of all (setting aside the issue of pay-walled journals...). Anyone can apply for a grant to fund research, and in fact this is how "soft money" researchers who are not tenure-track professors fund their salaries. Using the academic community as an anchor for a free software equivalent to the NSF would also solve the problem that academics have no incentive to develop or maintain software.