The research was a side effect of a very well defined goal, which was achievable albeit extremely hard. Investing in achieving a goal (with the research being a

The research was a side effect of a very well defined goal, which was achievable albeit extremely hard. Investing in achieving a goal (with the research being a side benefit) is different from just investing in research because it changes the motivations of the researchers (from "how do we get our next research grant" to "how do we solve this problem"). That's not to say you shouldn't invest in abstract research with no obvious goal at all, but probably you should consider it a much higher risk investment and not fund all your research that way... There's also the fact that money now is more valuable that money later even if you adjust for inflation (one of the reason countries run a deficit) so the expected return should be much higher than $1 to be worth investing in. Next, there's the fact that investment is finite, so the expected return has to be higher than the expected return you would get elsewhere. Finally there's the fact that as you invest more, the effects of all three of those factors increase, so it has diminishing returns.