Re: Is any of this actually a problem?
Today's goverments don't have the organisation ability, the will or the imagination to create a legacy like 'the New Deal' in America during the 1930's.
Where possible, any project paid for with public money should be public domain, at the very least there would be some benefit to the population footing the bill if the resulting code (if any) from these projects were released to the population (BSD or GPL). Not useful to most, but some genius somewhere might be able to pick it up and run with it (did I just use a rugby phrase?).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
