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The Billionaires Privatizing American Science
An anonymous reader writes "Government-funded science is struggling in the United States. With the unstable economy over the past decade and the growing hostility to science in popular rhetoric, basic research money is getting hard to find. Part of the gap is being filled by billionaire philanthropists. Steven Edwards of the American Association for the Advancement of Science says, 'For better or worse, the practice of science in the 21st century is becoming shaped less by national priorities or by peer-review groups and more by the particular preferences of individuals with huge amounts of money.' Vast amounts of research are now driven by names like Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, David Koch, and Eric Schmidt. While this helps in some ways, it can hurt in others. 'Many of the patrons, they say, are ignoring basic research — the kind that investigates the riddles of nature and has produced centuries of breakthroughs, even whole industries — for a jumble of popular, feel-good fields like environmental studies and space exploration. ... Fundamentally at stake, the critics say, is the social contract that cultivates science for the common good.'"
There is a lot of trouble with science. Scientists cutting corners and cheating. Retracting papers from journals is happening more frequently than ever before. Many papers are not reproducible and important descriptions of procedures or original data sets are never published. Affording all the necessary papers is difficult. Referees do not reject papers that have serious defects. Scientists pay to have themselves added as authors but make no contribution to the projects.
Interesting attempt to paint the "rightmost elements" of government as being responsible for our dysfunctional government.
I suggest, instead, that the primary problem with our government, and our economy, is the Federal Reserve. Like the World Bank and the various Central Banks around the world, it's interests supersede any national interests. Central banks, especially the Bank of England, are notorious for funding both sides in a war, knowing that the winner will control the assets necessary to repay to funds of both sides.
Left wing, right wing, it doesn't matter. The Fed funds them both, and both are very happy to impoverish the nation while trying to ensure they it rules the country.
While you're so happy highlighting all the evils of the right - you miss all the evils of the left. Welfare, for instance. Why do we have a welfare system that actually encourages generational dependence on the government? Why are welfare recipients using their benefits to purchase luxury goods? Why do 1 in 4 Americans qualify for welfare? Why do illegal aliens often get welfare benefits?
Neither party has any interest in enriching the common man, and both parties cooperate in impoverishing the population of the United States. Each has it's own interests, of course, but the fact is, there is a class war in the US right now. It's the "ruling class" versus all the rest of us.
Left or right, the ruling class fails to identify with the common man, and they have zero loyalty to the rapidly disappearing "middle class".
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Under Reagan, tax revenue increased from $600 billion to $1 trillion. The assertion that Reagan slashed tax revenue is therefore ridiculous.
* note for the occupy crowd - trillion is more than billion.
Further, the Reagan deficits were a few billion.
The Obama deficits are a few trillion.