Questions I originally posted at Democratic Freedom:
Regarding government-funded scientific research:
1. How is this not pork?
2. How is this not corporate welfare?
3. What mechanisms are in place (since the market price mechanism is being replaced)to insure that the right projects are being funded? That is, how do we know what is worthy of further research and what is unworthy?
4. How can this NOT be corrupted by politics and special interests, even to the point of stifling progress?
5. What in the Constitution authorizes such projects?
James Leroy Wilson's one-man magazine.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
I could rant all day on this one. As a man of many science hats, right now, I have grant funding from grubbermint because it's the only game in town. Education is a monopoly and there is no acknowledgement of knowledge unless there is a piece of parchment verification. In fact - the paper is much more important today than the knowledge. The poem part A posted at The Zone today has a part B that addresses this issue.
ReplyDeleteScience is hopeless and might as well be treated as religion. But if there is substance there, then we'll find it by quantitative measurement, not by wishful thinking. Addressing how to control variables so that the measurement measures something meaningful is major work. But for those who roll up their sleeves and do produce work, there is something accomplished.