We have socialised the risk of innovation but privatised the rewards
> When Google received funding for its algorithm from the National Science Foundation (NSF), is it right that after it earned billions nothing went back to the NSF<p>Serious mental gymnastics.<p>Page and Brin doing research with NSF grants isn't even remotely the same thing as Google, their future company, getting a check directly from the government.<p>Page and Brin produced publicly available research with NSF money. They started a company based on that public research. That company created untold billions of dollars of value out of thin air. Taxes are paid out of those new dollars, some of which go to fund the NSF.<p>This is exactly how it's supposed to work.