[ExI] Against government science funding was Re: New Hope for Alzheimer's Disease Vaccine

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Sat, Apr 19, 2008 at 3:52 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  Let's say that there is a project that may be undertaken in a country
>  of 1 million people that will cost $100 million and will provide $200
>  of utility, on average, to each citizen. The nature of the project is
>  such that the utility is spread across the entire population, i.e. if
>  a wealthy individual decides to fund the whole thing himself he will
>  still probably only get $200 of utility for his investment. Such a
>  project will likely be funded through taxation, but not through the
>  free market, except as an act of charity.

### Give me an example of any scientific project that had similar
economic parameters, was successfully funded by a government, and
couldn't have been commercialized. Just one example.

Rafal