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The "waste" in the startup industry has corrective mechanisms built in. Investors can pull their money out and take their business elsewhere. Taxpayers cannot

The "waste" in the startup industry has corrective mechanisms built in. Investors can pull their money out and take their business elsewhere. Taxpayers cannot pull their money out of the NSF and reallocate it to a different government agency.

janalsncm 3y ago
Sure. In theory, investors can behave as rational actors. In practice, you get all sorts of chasing the Next Big Thing because there’s too much money flowing around to too little fundamental research. So I’m ok if we spend $1.2M on research. That’s like 5 developers for one year who would otherwise be allocated by the invisible hand into effectively useless endeavors like high frequency trading or ad tech. Cut to the alternative universe where they’re working at Blackrock and a car thief is driving their car away.
- boobsbr 3y ago
  > So I’m ok if we spend $1.2M on research. I'm not. Where do I opt out of funding government grants? At least I can decide not invest in something if I don't want to risk losing money.
  - fnimick 3y ago
    You don't get to, because you don't get to opt out of the social benefit that they result in. (remember that government spending basically created transistorized logic, microchips, and computer networking as we know them today. would you have opted out of those too?)
  - tstrimple 3y ago
    You can opt out here: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/expatriation-tax https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/expa...
  - dralley 3y ago
    Government funded research gave us computers, the internet, EUV technology, GPS, lasers, and all sorts of other shit. If you're on HN in the first place, there is an approximately zero percent chance that the few dollars of your tax money spent on this kind of research hold a candle to the benefits you've gained from it.
  - ehnto 3y ago
    You didn't lose any money. Nor did the country, the money didn't vanish, it ended up in employees pockets. Given they are probably low paid researchers, it'll all be back in the engine of capitalism by the end of the month. Some of it will even be back in the gov's coffers, where you can pretend it's doing something you prefer, like barely covering maintenance of a single road for a year.

janalsncm 3y ago

Sure. In theory, investors can behave as rational actors. In practice, you get all sorts of chasing the Next Big Thing because there’s too much money flowing around to too little fundamental research. So I’m ok if we spend $1.2M on research. That’s like 5 developers for one year who would otherwise be allocated by the invisible hand into effectively useless endeavors like high frequency trading or ad tech. Cut to the alternative universe where they’re working at Blackrock and a car thief is driving their car away.

boobsbr 3y ago
> So I’m ok if we spend $1.2M on research. I'm not. Where do I opt out of funding government grants? At least I can decide not invest in something if I don't want to risk losing money.
- fnimick 3y ago
  You don't get to, because you don't get to opt out of the social benefit that they result in. (remember that government spending basically created transistorized logic, microchips, and computer networking as we know them today. would you have opted out of those too?)
- tstrimple 3y ago
  You can opt out here: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/expatriation-tax https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/expa...
- dralley 3y ago
  Government funded research gave us computers, the internet, EUV technology, GPS, lasers, and all sorts of other shit. If you're on HN in the first place, there is an approximately zero percent chance that the few dollars of your tax money spent on this kind of research hold a candle to the benefits you've gained from it.
- ehnto 3y ago
  You didn't lose any money. Nor did the country, the money didn't vanish, it ended up in employees pockets. Given they are probably low paid researchers, it'll all be back in the engine of capitalism by the end of the month. Some of it will even be back in the gov's coffers, where you can pretend it's doing something you prefer, like barely covering maintenance of a single road for a year.