The US built its scientific leadership over eighty years through a simple and elegant idea: the government funds the basic research that no private actor has the time horizon or risk tolerance to fund, and that foundational work eventually becomes the commercial infrastructure that generates returns for everyone. You can't defund the headwaters and then wonder why the river runs dry.
The Blue Line is running. The trains arrive. The system works. But the people maintaining it are still flown in from China, the contract that keeps it running is approaching expiration, and there is no public maintenance budget.
2mo ago
Underscored — save the words that stop you in your tracks.
