Compare Salaries Of DARPA or Private sector in any nation
or District attorney Of Judiciary
And Private Law firm
A US Military soldier Or A Private contracter
It universal Phenomenon
Who do you think have best Brains
Apple Or Microsoft
or DARPA Or NASA
in Next Few years Space X Will outshines NASA
boss, it's not always about money. SpaceX had to work really hard to outgun NASA and they are only reaping the benefits after 10 years or more.
One DARPA scientist also responded to a query that why DARPA, Raytheon, HII, LM and NASA do not improve themselves and be more competitive like Google, Apple, GE or SpaceX inspite of the US Gov. spending trillions of $$ on them. His answer was outstanding.
He said that most of the money alloted to them is to ensure SECURITY of their products over anything else, anything. Cause most don't mind if a computer doesn't work due to faulty software or overly-improved ones. But, everybody will care if a fighter jet or nuclear missile or aircraft carrier or BMD fails in software due to either becoming old and outdated or becoming too smart to handle. The privately-held businesses can overcome such problems but those will come at a pecuniary cost to the user for obvious reasons. He also cites that the Tomahawk missile hasn't changed it's software much in over 30 years due to the above-mentioned reasons.
So, security does come at a cost but I agree with most of you, WE NEED TO SPEND MORE ON SECURE AND FOOLPROOF SYSTEMS FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW.