Things government does well that private enterprise can't or won't do

Want a list of things done by government better than by private enterprise? Check this post out.

There are a lot of things that private enterprise does better than government, but they all are based on a private company that chooses a market to serve and focuses on that market, ignoring everyone else. They are also things that do not require spending money today for long-term uncertain returns in the distant future. That's why government funds basic science which is published without patent, and private enterprise designs and builds patented products.

Go read the article at Firedoglake. Things that would never have been built by private enterprise include nuclear power, Boulder Dam (for power, flood control and irrigation), computers generally (developed for the federal census and then social security programs), space rockets and satellites, microcomputers (developed first for the use of the space program since it cost too much to put vacuum tubes into space), jet aircraft, supersonic aircraft, the interstate highway system, the Internet, and myriad other things. Each of those was initiated and provided early funding by the government.

At some point lots of it was spun off from the government programs into private enterprise, but investors would never have placed their money in any of those items if government had not proven the ideas and developed the first products.

We also wouldn't have (as an example) pocket calculators if it weren't for Texas Instruments or personal computers without Hewlett Packard and Apple, so I am not attempting to belittle private enterprise. My point is that there are things best done in the private economy and others best done by government. Trying to replace government with private organizations will result in the governmental job not being done well. The key is to recognizes what functions belong to which sphere of society.