The jet aircraft industry and the 747 remain the gold standard for what a corporate/private partnership can accomplish.  Given the amount of R&D that was underwritten by the US government, this leviathan of the skies would NEVER have been possible without public investments underwriting the financial losses of SEVERAL precursors to the final product. To this day, I cringe at the term "corporate welfare" and do so for 2 basic reasons; it undermines the GOOD that CAN flow from public/private partnerships while at the same time demonizing VERY important social safety nets.  In this day and age of the "rediscovery of the miracles of the marketplace" (please heed a sarcasm alert here) - we'd do well to remember that MANY of the advances of mankind were engineered WITHOUT regard to market concerns.

The jet aircraft industry and the 747 remain the gold standard for what a corporate/private partnership can accomplish.  Given the amount of R&D that was underwritten by the US government, this leviathan of the skies would NEVER have been possible without public investments underwriting the financial losses of SEVERAL precursors to the final product. To this day, I cringe at the term "corporate welfare" and do so for 2 basic reasons; it undermines the GOOD that CAN flow from public/private partnerships while at the same time demonizing VERY important social safety nets.  In this day and age of the "rediscovery of the miracles of the marketplace" (please heed a sarcasm alert here) - we'd do well to remember that MANY of the advances of mankind were engineered WITHOUT regard to market concerns.

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