Absolutely not. But they're a necessary evil for progress. The railroad barons of the 19th century made big things happen, they opened the American West (while enriching themselves on the government teat). Same for ship builders, military industrial complex, space travel, etc. You think all these great builders were goody through and through? Nope. Thomas Edison was a crook. Nicolas Tesla tried to be a good guy and got no where. Sometimes people with big ideas go begging governments for a handout to make their big ideas happen (like Christopher Columbus seeking the New World but with other people's money). It is what it is.
Railroad barons did not depend on government subsidy, but were forced into it and ended up paying the government back with interest, never mind getting their margins lowered by taxation and Interstate Commerce Commission regulation; and the government further eroded their margins by “competing” against them with subsidized roadways (quite often by taking over privately-operated roadways) even as early as the nineteenth century.
Government assistance is not inherently a “necessary evil for progress”, if by “progress” one means technological and commercial advancement.
“It is what it is”
What a hypocrite.
http://fortune.com/2015/08/27/remember-solyndra-mistake/
https://www.heritage.org/environment/report/the-clinch-river-folly
3 of many. I’ll send you a bill, too.