Xerox PARC invented a lot of stuff we now take for granted, network computers, the GUI, object oriented programming, etc. And it wasn't cheap, and almost all of it has nothing to do with the core mission of Xerox.

But one invention that popped out of PARC did---the laser printer. That one invention paid for Xerox PARC many times over (maybe a hundred times over---PARC spent a few million but the laser printer pulled in a few billion).

Fundamental research is expensive in the short term, but it pays off handsomely in the long term (unfortunately, longer than Wall Street will allow it seems).