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This has always been the case. Researchers are free to take the results of their publicly-funded research and run. The govt. sees it as a win-win. It's money w
by finid 10y ago
This has always been the case. Researchers are free to take the results of their publicly-funded research and run. The govt. sees it as a win-win.
It's money well spent because of the jobs created. Taxes from those jobs and profits from the corporations is the ROI.
- venomsnake 10y agoOr the government could own the patent and licence it to american business and prevent rent seeking from the inventors. It is the same income, but the outcome for the society is better I think. There will still be jobs created and corporate profits.
- matthew_morgan 10y agoSo we're taxed in order to generate more money in taxes... How is that a "return on investment"? When is the return, exactly? And if you follow the logic about jobs, why doesn't the government (i.e. the taxpayer) fund every potentially profitable venture (without asking for any share of the rewards)?
- finid 10y agoI'm not saying that it's the best arrangement, but that's how it works now. Most university research are publicly funded via the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). So without such funding, most research will be grounded. Companies like Yahoo!, Google, Sun Microsystems (RIP), Akamai, etc, were/are the result of publicly-funded research.