It's also antithetical to scientific principle, though not to common practice, to look for your keys under the streetlight. If there's no good reason to believ

It's also antithetical to scientific principle, though not to common practice, to look for your keys under the streetlight. If there's no good reason to believe that a new accelerator will produce breakthroughs, then there's no reason to fund it. There are plenty of areas of research where large investments of money would have a great chance of advancing science rather than just enabling a small group of scientists to continue doing the work they're accustomed to.