> This is very misleading. US government heavily taxes people and organizations and spends on certain projects. But if people had more resources left to themsel

> This is very misleading. US government heavily taxes people and organizations and spends on certain projects. But if people had more resources left to themselves, they could spend some of it on the same projects US gov spends it on. The burden of proof for that is on you. Where did it happen like that in recent history ? Even in Germany and Japan two other powerhouses of research in the world, it's greatly helped by the fact that public research (funded by the state) and corporations are intertwined. I'm French, our best years for innovation were during our glorious 30's when state was directing mainly state corporations (telecom, energy, aerospace) to do long term research. When it was privatized due to antitrust pressure by the EU, all that was killed (see how much telecom technology came from the CNET/Alcatel, even one of the Internet primary idea, packet switching, came from a French researcher of this era).