Of course i know that, I work at MIT, not Walmart. But that doesn't mean that i approve of everything that goes on in university research. I feel if a private equity company wants to invest in research they're going to want to see profit back, that's it. No profit no company, or like SVB, no tech Bank when the techs are struggling.

I believe that if the government invests in research, or if the government/defense has a breakthrough that they are sharing for the good of "the people" than the government needs to have its money paid back, or more likely, a share of the profits. Otherwise the government is investing in research while companies that will benefit from and get rich, are in effect being subsidized by the government.

I know the argument: that all of society benefits, companies get rich, floats all boats, but when i was born our debt was at 0.5trillion,when I graduated from high school the national debt was 1.5 trillion, and today it's at 33trillion. We can't keep spending and printing money as the debt will never come due.

If the govt was making residuals from the technology that it helped develop and gave away to companies that did profit, our dept would be much less. The defense dept put satellites into orbit and developed GPS. Does Garmin and Google maps pay the government for usage?

The government funded almost $30billion in COVID vaccine research, while Moderna made over 18b, while Pfizer showed record profits of $100B, with $57B from COVID in just one year, but those profits will stretch out years. I'd just like to see the government (my government) have some of its (my) money reimbursed and I'd like to see it's investment (with my tax dollars) earn revenue downstream, so the (my) government in in better shape moving fed. The drug companies still make money. I just don't think that the government is a bottomless pit of free money, and given what we spend on technological development, we should be in a better position to reap some real reward to help the bottom line.

Yeah, I have a clue, I just don't always agree with the party line.

As we sit on the precipice of another bank collapse and depression, it seems a lot of people very high up, that should have a clue, as it's their job, in fact don't.

So don't act as if this is an easy fix or that we should keep going the way it's been going, because there are a lot of people that can see that things are not working very well and in the long run things will have to change.