So why spend public money?
I've been around too long to be fooled by a media blitz.
America is an invention machine. That’s our bread butter. That’s what makes america work from one generation to the next.
There are three parts the invention machine.
The first part is basic research. That’s almost all federal dollars. That creates the foundations of knowledge from which to work.
The second part is applied research. In this stage, there is a combination of federal and private money.
The third stage is entrepreneurial invention which brings things to market. This is all private money at work.
Fusion R&D is currently at the second stage listed above—that is of applied research—or a mix of public and private money. But it has spent decades in the realm of basic research.
Agree there is a point where federal dollars are no longer necessary. I’m not wise enough to know where that point is.
Therefor, since the best money that the feds spend is on basic and applied research—I would prefer to err on the side of spending the money. Especially, as the dollar sums we are talking about.. are —in federal terms—marginal.