I'm not saying you should, for example, support changing federal procurement regulations to favor open source software (though the author makes a strong point).

I'm not saying you should, for example, support changing federal procurement regulations to favor open source software (though the author makes a strong point). Or that you should favor tax incentives for them. I was taking issue with your broader principle that "asking for government support is really an admission of failure." In fact, subsidies can be incredibly valuable for the societies that collectively pay for them. I think it's best to evaluate on a case-by-case basis. This author has done a ton of research and so I didn't like it being dismissed out-of-hand on principle. Here's the paper linked from the piece about procurement (need a free account to access): https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3355486 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3355486 Also, for the record, vaccines are highly subsidized, particularly for children. Those subsidies are one of the best things we've ever done as a nation.