[ExI] Private and government R&D

[Dan]

--- On Wed, 7/1/09, Eschatoon Magic <eschatoon at gmail.com> wrote:
> Instead of making a religion war of
> this, how about simply
> acknowledging that both private and public R&D funding
> have their roles?

While that sounds like the wise course, the point under debate was whether one is better at delivering the goods as well as whether each has certain path dependencies.  (I didn't use the term "path dependencies," but this was what I meant by pointing out that a voluntary system would likely have R&D funding, but not in exactly the same way as the current coercive system.)

There is also the problem that under the coercive system, some people are forced to pay for others' pet projects.  Some might find no problem with this, but I think that's relevant to the discussion because coercion introduces certain features that wouldn't be found under a voluntary system.

Regards,

Dan