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Because budgets elsewhere are expanding. Interest in science has waned and research in tech has increased. My own field of civil engineering has seen much bet
by nashashmi 9y ago
Because budgets elsewhere are expanding. Interest in science has waned and research in tech has increased.
My own field of civil engineering has seen much better days in terms of research and innovation. The field is now seen as ancient and specs are top heavy. Well, the brighter minds have turned to other areas and our field has flatlined.
- panic 9y agoIt's not necessarily about interest. US policy for the past few decades has been to reduce taxes (in 1945 we took 94% from the highest income tax bracket!) and let the private sector decide how to allocate money. Since people spend a lot of money on tech, that's where the money ends up.
- mseebach 9y agoRegardless of tax policy having been reformed several times, tax revenue relative to GDP has steadily increased. The problem is that the money is spent on other things, not that it's not being collected. http://www.usgovernmentrevenue.com/revenue_history http://www.usgovernmentrevenue.com/revenue_history
- panic 9y agoThe increase is due to social security revenue, which goes into a trust fund and can't be invested directly into research. If you leave out social security, the graphs on that site show the remaining federal revenue steadily decreasing relative to GDP.