<...The free market is too risk adverse to invest the kind of money needed to develop expensive new technology on that level.

That sounds a little funny to me, sitting here typing at a computer that represents untold billions of dollars in investments by the private sector. A single chip manufacturing plant can cost up to $3 billion, which is about a billion more than the list price of a Shuttle Orbiter. It doesn't include the R & D for the chip plant either.

The private sector did not invest in weathersat technology because the government handed it to them on a silver platter. Why bother? Anyway, at least the tech is out there, saving lives, and that's the important thing.