who said anything about the shuttle? i'm talking about the Space Program. and the Internet was a collaboration between government and academia that has morphed into the single biggest economic engine ever. US Government was also the biggest single investor in the creation of intercoastal railroads - with money, not just land (see the Railway Act of 1862).

i know - it's enough to make your pointed little wingnut head explode, isn't it? :BL:

knife, instead of making these arguments as you were the one who thought them up, you should have just posted a link to the white paper those arguments came from. I mean there's no reason why you should be bulldozed just because you bought into somebody else's dubious line of reasoning.

a sad attempt at concern-trollery, laddie, and you've got your facts backward. your article is dated 2007, whereas here's me making this very same point in March, 2006.

so, apparently, there really is no reason why you should be bulldozed because you bought into your own dubious line of reasoning...and while i doubt if i was the first person to argue that there is some precedent for successful government/industry collaboration, i clearly made this point long before your guys ever came along :BL:

I'll bet there is some precedent for successful government/industry collaboration, but you have yet to mention one. Remember, Google is your friend.

you already got served - back for seconds?

I see you're morphing your argument from "government investment in technology" to "government/industry collaboration" in your attempts to score an easy point out of the obvious fact that virtually all industry has some degree of collaboration with government.

Sticking to the investment argument like someone with integrity I'll point out that private investors have trillions of dollars that they're eager to invest in anything they see as having the potential for success while government politicians have billions of appropriated tax money they're primarily interested in using to further their political careers and don't give a shit if it's poured down a drain.

But if you want to talk about "government/industry collaboration" why don't you mention the 800lb gorilla in military spending and crow about the "success" that's brought?