Robert Pollin , Professor of Economics and founding Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst: "...the U.S. economy certainly needs to thrive on having some type of planning, investment in research and development, and, crucially, when we have new technologies emerging, having guaranteed markets for them through the government, which is what the Pentagon has done for its technologies. Again, the most obvious case in point is the internet, which was under research and development with the Pentagon for 35 years, never brought in any money, was not commercially viable, and then it became commercially viable after many, many years of work with the Pentagon."