Is charity a market mechanism? I honestly don't know. But apparently there has been a trend toward more private funding of basic research: http://blogs.scien

Is charity a market mechanism? I honestly don't know. But apparently there has been a trend toward more private funding of basic research: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious-wavefunction/are-we-entering-a-golden-era-of-private-science-funding/ http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious-wavefunction...