2 ms·

Whenever you really start peeling away at Silicon Valley mega tech stories, you mostly find tax dollars.

• otterley 1mo ago
  A large majority of basic scientific research is funded by tax dollars. One mustn't underestimate the importance of DOD, NIH, and NSF grants in ongoing technological innovation. Update: s/majority/amount/
  • jandrewrogers 1mo ago
    > A large majority of basic scientific research is funded by tax dollars. Used to be. The US government only funds 40% of basic scientific research now. This is due to large increases investment from private industry, which now rivals the US government even for basic scientific research in addition to funding the vast majority of other research. US government funding didn't decrease, the pie just became much larger. NSF regularly publishes detailed reports on US R&D funding. The trend toward industry funding eclipsing US government funding started in the 1960s. https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20257/trends-in-u-s-r-d-performance-and-funding https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20257/trends-in-u-s-r-d-perfor...
    • otterley 1mo ago
      That's a great link! Thanks for that :-)
• nunez 1mo ago
  Hence why Silicon Valley started at Silicon Valley. It was (is?) a huge defense contractor outpost.
• briandw 1mo ago
  What's your actually point? Reading between the lines I'm seeing the following logic. 1) The free market develops and sell products. 2) The government buys the products that the free market has produced. 3) Therefore the free market isn't viable without government tax money? Therefore socialism? Silicon Valley wouldn't be as successful without govt spending money on things it needs? Help me out here.