In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg gave $100M to Newark public schools. At the time he said that Newark had the worst schools in the nation. His gift would establish a foundation to improve schools in the city. Setting aside the fact that it hasn’t gone as planned, who had the second worst public schools and what did they get?

The problem with private enterprise is that it is continually fixated on winners and losers. Being the worst gets attention, being second worst is just first loser. A similar phenomena is at work in medicine where some diseases are sexy and get lots of funding — often because a celebrity of family/friend of a celebrity was afflicted (Muscular Dystrophy comes to mind) or because of the body part (breast cancer). Fortunately, these diseases get a lot of funding and strides have been made in their treatment/cure. Less well-known diseases often struggle to find funding.

These situations are where the government comes in. The government evens the playing field and gives the participation trophies (funding) to these other areas that wouldn’t otherwise get it. They also fund the well-funded areas. It’s really a pretty efficient system.