The question is not only about what could be invented with private funds. No, we also consider if it was actually invented with private funds - or if the govern

The question is not only about what could be invented with private funds. No, we also consider if it was actually invented with private funds - or if the government did that first, and now we are not sure when - or if - private capital would actually do that without government. I'd agree that there are examples of advancements which almost certainly would be delayed without government involvement, and there are examples where it's almost certain that even without government we'd have results in almost the same time. Human genome sequencing comes to mind.