Megan McArdle
Government-funded basic research and industrial translation research are complements, not substitutes. The left frequently gets this wrong, thinking that the government does all the real work and private firms (notably pharma) just steal the idea and make bank. Now the right is getting it wrong from the other direction.
Boaz Barak
Yes, the most successful pitches to VCs have the form, "I have no idea how we will make money from this research, but it will likely take decades, and benefits would accrue to society at large." This is how we got the Internet, MRI, CRISPR, etc..