[LibFreeOrDie]

Richard Levin, economist and Yale's president, asks: Would Japan's growth have lagged since 1990 "if Microsoft, Netscape, Apple and Google had been Japanese companies"? Japan's failure has been a failure to innovate.

How does this fit into Will's thesis that research universities need more money? Microsoft and Apple were founded by college dropouts.

[Kent C]

“How does this fit into Will’s thesis that research universities need more money? Microsoft and Apple were founded by college dropouts.”

Such an excellent point - you’d think that he would have thought of that.

[Gondring]

How does this fit into Will's thesis that research universities need more money? Microsoft and Apple were founded by college dropouts.

Not all college dropouts have million-dollar trust funds (like the one Bill Gates' grandfather set up for him).

Not all college dropouts have an education from an exclusive prep school that cost nearly 3 times Harvard's tuition. The school had its own PDP-10. I recall that in my area at the time, all the public schools in five counties shared one for specific tasks only, while Bill Gates' school had its own to play with.

And don't forget that Apple would never have succeeded without the funding of Mike Markkula....nor would the founders have succeeded without the primary research and development conducted by government-funded labs at universities.