Free market economy vs. Command economy

CERN are close to opening their Large Hadron Collider later this year and it got me thinking. The project has taken 14 years to build and has cost billions. There is no immediate benefit that can be sought from such a project except to further human knowledge in particle physics.

Can you imagine such a facility being developed in the U.S.? The free market economy capital of the world? My thoughts on the matter are that free market economies are very much short term in their vision as the want for wealth essentially overtakes all other value systems.

Something to think about.