[washingtonismoney]

But all of that is besides the point.  Please re-read my post.  The government certainly can create a "public good" by supporting basic research (and building certain bridges, etc.).  My point was, in large part, that for every internet success-story the government may produce, there are dozens of ethanol-like misdirected resource stories.

I was responding to garvin, not you. While you might not have been talking about the CS program, it was where the thread started. If that's not what you want to discuss, that's fine.

Anyway, two points: one, funding education is a pretty fundamental public good--in this case, CS. Second, it seems to me that there's a pretty sensible case to be made that the value of 1 Internet > Dozens of Ethanol-like misdirected resource stories. It's certainly not obvious that the reverse is true.

[washingtonismoney]

But all of that is besides the point.  Please re-read my post.  The government certainly can create a "public good" by supporting basic research (and building certain bridges, etc.).  My point was, in large part, that for every internet success-story the government may produce, there are dozens of ethanol-like misdirected resource stories.

I was responding to garvin, not you. While you might not have been talking about the CS program, it was where the thread started. If that's not what you want to discuss, that's fine.

Anyway, two points: one, funding education is a pretty fundamental public good--in this case, CS. Second, it seems to me that there's a pretty sensible case to be made that the value of 1 Internet > Dozens of Ethanol-like misdirected resource stories. It's certainly not obvious that the reverse is true.