ABSOLUTELY!
Other than the well known advances from NASA, how much useful advancement in knowledge and technology do we hear of from the hundreds and hundreds of billions government has wasted on research grants?
Usually we hear of money wasted on foolish research projects that fit the agenda of political correctness, such as the sex lives of monkeys or insects (to prove homosexualism is "normal").
Meanwhile, individuals like Gary Cola forge ahead on their own making new discoveries that dwarf the results of government projects and actually contribute to the general welfare of the nation.
Soon the government will ask him to sign over the rights, lest he become a Social Danger!
If you consider that for thirteen years this Institute has had a department of metallurgical research, which has cost over twenty million dollars and has produced nothing new but a silver polish and a new anti-corrosive preparation, which, I believe, is not so good as the old ones - you can imagine what the public reaction will be if some private individual comes out with a product that revolutionizes the entire science of metallurgy and proves to be sensationally successful!
(Atlas Shrugged)