Nothing wrong with sucking the government teat if the calf grows up nice and strong and independent and gives more milk than it sucked from the teat.
Wilbur and Orville needed the government to make their invention a success. Without the Army contract they got the Airplane may of took much longer to be commercially viable.
The Internet wouldn’t be around without early government funding and support.
I understand and respect your libertarian thoughts and I love the works of people like Ayn Rand who believed in little government support.
But when I look at American history of the period before the Civil War I see the North where government (many times foolishly) supported industry and provided infrastructure like canals and roads for business use.
I see the South where the Planters controlled the governments and wanted low taxes and therefore low government services. They didn’t help other industry develop they didn’t see the need to educate poor whites and the area stagnated. If you was part of the Cotton industry things was good but by all standards the middle class and poor of the South fell behind those of the North.
Everything from the Coast Guard to the Weather Service has their roots in government helping commerce. If a good workable alternative fuels program comes out of this then like computers which also came out of government programs it is a good thing. If it is just a big boondoggle and we has wasted billions well at least the government wasted it in this country for a change.
Trouble is, our calves are rarely weaned.
There is another way of nurturing fledgling industry and that is with private investors. Millions of people risked a lot of money bringing computers, Internet technology, airplanes, cell phones and pharmaceutical companies to the market.
Trying to portray government as the founder of these industries is an insult to the visionaries and venture capitalists who really made it happen. It is an insult because it implies that good people need to be prodded and they would not have the invention, industry or will to do good things on their own.
As I said before, one of the problems with government spending is that it gives a precedent, however feeble, for more government largess with hard-earned taxpayer money.
When the army bought an airplane from the Wright brothers for a legitimate military purpose that can hardly be compared to a huge byzantine system of subsidies, mandates, tax benefits and price supports for ethanol.
Look at other countries for examples of the "calves" that were supposed to grow up. Like, for example, phone companies. In the early days of the cell phone, many counties had more cell phone owners than in the US. Why? Because the old land-line phone companies were old and bloated calves still sucking off the government and enjoying their monopoly status. Cell phones provided better service.
Long ago, when federal government taxes were in the single digits, research was funded privately. They were wealthy men called "patrons" who funded scientists. Many great discoveries in the pure sciences were made this way. Today wealthy men are treated like cash cows by the government. The wealthiest 50 percent of taxpayers pay 96 percent of the tax burden, about 40 percent of GDP. Imagine how much better this country would work if they didn't have to pay that money to a system that doles it out to the most corrupt researchers doing junk science. Not honest scientists but zombie-like drones who got their position from political patronage, affirmative action or just plain dishonesty.