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"but if you want public funding, you will have to put up with questions about whether this expenditure will actually make the world a better place for ordinary
by Ardit20 18y ago
"but if you want public funding, you will have to put up with questions about whether this expenditure will actually make the world a better place for ordinary people."
Strange how no one seemed to care how much money the War in Iraq would cost, or whether spending that many trillions is justified, but 4 billion to do what is vital for our existence, that of knowledge for the sake of knowledge, needs justification.
- rms 18y agoCareful, if you start comparing the spending for Iraq to pretty much anything, the opportunity cost of Iraq is enough to drive you insane. You can take some solace in the knowledge that even without Iraq, science would have been underfunded. For the cost of Iraq we could have skipped a couple generations of particle accelerator. At this rate of Science funding it'll be 100 years until we build the planetary scale accelerator to test string theory.
- lunchbox 18y agoStrange how no one seemed to care how much money the War in Iraq would cost I cared; I think it's an absurd waste of money. I think all forms of governmental spending need justification. That's what fiscal responsibility is about.