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Scientific funding is actually one of the things I would want to cut to fund a UBI. I feel like a lot of "college professor/researcher" work is dealing with th
by cbhl 9y ago
Scientific funding is actually one of the things I would want to cut to fund a UBI.
I feel like a lot of "college professor/researcher" work is dealing with the paperwork of justifying why someone should give you enough money that you can pay an undergrad or master's student enough money to cover half of tuition so that you can get them to do some experiments with you.
If people didn't have to worry about rent or putting food on the table, they wouldn't have to spend time on government paperwork and could just focus on advancing science instead.
- saagarjha 9y agoAre you suggesting that scientific funding doesn’t have benefits for society, or that it’s benefits are outweighed by the need for UBI?
- cbhl 9y agoNeither -- I am saying that scientific funding primarily serves to keep scientists housed and alive (okay, and a little equipment too) and the money would go further without the overhead of means testing (that is, squabbling over which research is "worth funding" and which is not).
- bonniemuffin 9y agoI think the poster is suggesting that if people didn't have to work for money, many scientists would continue doing scientific research for free, and they'd have more time to spend on it because they wouldn't have to play the grants game. This might actually be true for a field like math, where you just need paper/computer to make a major discovery. Probably not for a field like biology that involves a lot of web lab materials -- paying the humans is only a tiny sliver of the cost of making a discovery in the biosciences.
- newen 8y agoPeople who do science aren't some weird platonic ideal of scientists who are only motivated by science. They have spouses, kids they want to send to college, friends, social reputations, and a mortgage. I don't know any scientist who is willing to live in a crappy house (which is highly likely with only UBI) and crappy salary so that they can do science 100% of the time.