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Why Isn't the US Government Funding Research?
thesandbender writes "The recent post about GM opening its own battery research facility led me to wonder why the US government is pouring billions into buying companies instead of heavily funding useful research. You can give $10 billion to a company to squander or you can invest $10 billion into a battery research and just give the findings to the whole of the US industry for free. From a historical standpoint, the US government has little experience with commercial enterprise ... but has an amazing record for driving innovation. The Manhattan Project and the Apollo moon missions are two of the pinnacles of 20th century scientific achievement, yet it seems to me that this drive died in the '70s and that's when the US started its slow decline. To be true to the 'Ask Slashdot' theme, what practical research do you think the US government should embark upon to get the most return for its citizens and the world?"
The house just passed a bill that is being advertised to encourage cleaner vehicles.
The requirement:
Trade in your 18MPG car (SUV) for a 20MPG car (SUV), ...and you get $3500.
Yes, 20MPG. The Model T got 20MPG, 100 years ago.
What exactly is the point of that?
Fill up the landfills with trade-in SUV's?
Help liquidate big auto's supply of bad vehicles.
Transfer money from taxpayers to well paying/donating companies.
I know people didn't like McCain but he did want to fund research and offer reewards for things like new battery technology.
Citation please.
I know they do it but it's not constitutional. It is the role of private companies and they would probably have made much more progress if they didn't have to give all their profits over to the IRS. The free market puts research dollars where they will be most beneficial. Politicians put research dollars where they will buy the most votes.
so you can say, "Let me Google that for you". It sort of implies that if you really wanted to know, you would have looked it up. That it doesn't really need a technical interpretation that only a bored slashdotter could maybe answer after waiting for much longer.