On 06/10/2011 07:32 AM, Paul Fuller wrote:

> GPS strikes me as a counter-example. It costs somebody (the US military
> / government) a lot of money. I didn't pay for it except by the most
> circuitous reasoning (not being a US citizen). I don't see how I'm being
> sold by it or for it. Now I do have to pay for a GPS receiver but there
> isn't as far as I know any component in that cost for building and
> running the satellite network, ground stations etc.
>
> To every generalisation there is at least one obvious and irrefutable
> counter-example - even this one.

Allow me to refute: The US government *needs* GPS, whether you have 
access to it or not. Once you have a GPS service, it costs nothing to 
allow civilians to access it as well. (Indeed, it would cost money to 
*stop* then accessing it.) Ergo, in fact giving you GPS isn't costing 
anybody anything.

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