I’m just saying, you brought up USSR, which isn’t around any longer for various reasons. But since it’s Friday and I don’t really want to get into heated debates right now, here’s the top 10 USSR innovations: 
http://www.infoniac.com/hi-tech/top-10-inventions-made-in-ussr.html
CIA developed lithium-ion batteries in the 1960s because certain operational missions required long-lasting batteries of various shapes and sizes. The lithium-ion battery improved the performance of surveillance equipment and prolonged the operation of reconnaissance satellites. In the early 1970s, the CIA passed the technology to the medical community where it was used in heart pacemakers.
The medical community has also used CIA’s research and development to improve early detection of breast cancer. Radiologists were able to adapt technology – originally used for satellite imagery analysis – to help better diagnose breast cancer in women under 50, where diagnosis is difficult. The use of these methods is believed to have considerably reduced the number of deaths from breast cancer.
Finally, in February 2003, the CIA-funded strategic investor In-Q-Tel made an investment in Keyhole, Inc. Keyhole was a pioneer of interactive 3D earth visualization and creator of the Earth Viewer 3D system. CIA worked closely with other Intelligence Community organizations to tailor Keyhole’s systems to meet operational needs. The technology was also useful in the private sector, with multiple TV networks using Earthviewer 3D to fly over Iraqi cities during its news coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The popularity of this technology eventually caught the attention of Google, which acquired Keyhole in 2004. You know this technology today as Google Earth.
Update you with more:
In-Q-Tel officials regard the firm as independent, yet it has extremely close ties to the CIA and runs almost all investment decisions by the spy agency. The firm discloses little about how it picks companies to invest in, never says how much, and sometimes doesn’t reveal the investments at all.
I am going to assume this is a joke because otherwise you are just proving my point. Any list with Tetris and an ear hat in your top 10 innovations…
If you’ve lived over there for 15 years like I have, you’d learn to appreciate the ear hat.
Stallone’s grandma is from my home city, Odessa, which was a part of USSR back in a day.
So in reality, that’s a fight between two USSR fighters 
What USSR city is Dolph Lundgren from? 
He has dem USSR shorts on, that will do 
My wife is from Odessa, she reminds me of that fact at least 3 times per day.
Hahahah that’s exactly what I was thinking! (My other Yiddish aficionado, @Bostoncarconcierge probably was thinking it too!)
I don’t understand the point of your post. You said every invention was from the government or military. I said that is an absurd claim and listed many American innovations that were the greatest of the last 100 years that have changed the lives of just about everyone on earth. I said that none of these had anything to do with the government, I also said that yes of course innovations have come from the military I never denied that assertion. So you ignored my main point and responded to one I did not make. Does the military spur innovation? Of course, also due to capitalism because they pay handsomely to private contractors for these innovations. However to claim that all or most innovations come from government is not only absurd but empirically false.
Airplanes had ‘something’ to do with the government. As inventive as the Wright Brothers were, I doubt they would successfully commercialize the use of airplanes without US Army adopting them for military use. I don’t think anyone is denying that Capitalism good or that it works. However, it takes two to tango. If you solely relied on Capitalism to do its thing, you wouldn’t even have antibiotics at reasonable prices.
And I agree with you on that, If you all would have said that from the beginning I never would have gotten into it. It’s when you say all or most come from Government I that I took issue with. Our biggest area of disagreement is how much involvement the government should have, Not if they have a role or involvement at all.
I still would say that due to the fact that private companies don’t tend to invest in long term research needed to develop something significant. It is all about selling quickly, move on to the next thing.
I am as anti-government as the next guy, but I have to admit, big things can’t happen without government allocation of resources without profit motive.
It’s interesting you say that when “big pharma” who is probably the most vilified (sometimes deservedly) of any group in Capitalism has a development cycle of over 10 years on any new drug. I understand your point. I just don’t like to speak in absolutes. There are many times in history where companies have invested in the long haul.
It’s also interesting you say that government funding a project divorces it of profit motive. That is not the case. I worked at Lockheed Martin for 5 years and every project I worked on was government funded. However Lockheed was profiting from that government funding. It doesn’t matter if the capital comes from private enterprise or the government it is still innovation driven by profit motive.
That’s actually the most USSR thing you could bring up. Everyone knows that our military spending is mostly a jobs program. I.E. like in Soviet Union, you’d build crap no one buys just to justify employment.
No one buys? Do you have any idea how much of our defense contractors profits come from sales to allies? The F-16 alone has approximately 3,000 operational in service today in 25 countries.
By Allies you mean counties that get financial aid from us to buy our own military equipment? It is a vicious cycle ultimately funded by the taxpayers.
3 of those countries get aid from us. Again you are speaking in absolutes. A vast majority of them don’t.
Here we are in agreement. I think we should cut off most of our foreign aid and close most of our foreign bases. Our military spending is so high because we pay for the defense of countries, countries more than capable of defending themselves like Japan and Germany.
It is easily more countries than just 3.
Also, it is not all black and white though. Japan won’t be able to protect itself against NK and especially China. Many countries do need weapons to defend themselves against neighboring invaders. I’m just calling spade a spade here. Our military-industrial complex is a jobs program and not a sign of private innovation.
