re: #6 researchok

No offense, but that all reads like an extreme over-simplification to me. This isn’t about short-term bean-counting, but the big picture - what saves the most money in the long run, when all factors are taken into account.

Consider the very serious problem of drug-resistant bacteria, and a lack of new antibiotics to treat them. Why is there a shortage of antibiotics? Because the profit-driven drug industry doesn’t make as much money from them!

Common sense, when you think of it - the medications which people are pretty much stuck with for life (e.g. blood pressure control, anti-depressants, etc) - would naturally turn more profit for a pharmaceutical than something you only take for a week. Ergo, their financial incentive is to invest in research for chronic condition treatment, not cures for a bacterial disease. Without government investment in the research for the latter, we may very well find ourselves in a world of hurt someday (to say nothing of the aggressive anti-science agenda of the GOP, but I digress)

That right there tells you that, bean-counting aside, there are certain things in the public interest that cannot be “efficiently” privatized in a manner that results in a net benefit to society.