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Unfortunately universities are not immune to the realities of living in a capitalistic society. Money needs to be made, growth needs to be demonstrated, debts n

Unfortunately universities are not immune to the realities of living in a capitalistic society. Money needs to be made, growth needs to be demonstrated, debts need to be paid, and for that grants need to come in. People recognize that unprofitable research is necessary, but no one wants to fund it. And event when by some miracle it does get funded, people complain loudly and mock it ruthlessly. Sometimes the institution stays strong, sometimes it buckles under the pressure.

johnp271 3y ago
"Unfortunately universities are not immune to the realities of living in a capitalistic society." There might be unpleasant realities of living in a capitalistic society but they are less unpleasant than living in any other sort of society.
s1artibartfast 3y ago
The government funds a large amounts of unprofitable research because some of it may prove valuable. much of it does not prove valuable. Unlimited funding for all researchers is not a viable option, so discretion is used. Very smart people put effort in to competing and selecting the most promising options. One could argue that this technology was overlooked initially (although it eventually DID get funded). What nobody suggests is how this technology should have been discerned from the rest without future knowledge.
staunton 3y ago
> Unfortunately universities are not immune to the realities of living in a capitalistic society This is of course true (trivially and of absolutely anything in a capitalist society). However, it's somewhat ironic in that academia as an economic system is basically communist and rests on funding and planning by state bureaucracies. We are in fact discussing the kinds of corruption and misaligned incentives that plague communist systems. That is not to say, of course, that just making it "more capitalist" would immediately improve it.
- ModernMech 3y ago
  Government investing money in private sector research is not communism. And there is no central planning going on here, it's quite distributed. At the top the people making the decisions on how much money to be allocated to research are democratically elected in free and fair elections. At the bottom, the people using the money are distributed across thousands of independent organizations, working on their own things.

johnp271 3y ago

"Unfortunately universities are not immune to the realities of living in a capitalistic society." There might be unpleasant realities of living in a capitalistic society but they are less unpleasant than living in any other sort of society.

s1artibartfast 3y ago

The government funds a large amounts of unprofitable research because some of it may prove valuable. much of it does not prove valuable. Unlimited funding for all researchers is not a viable option, so discretion is used. Very smart people put effort in to competing and selecting the most promising options. One could argue that this technology was overlooked initially (although it eventually DID get funded). What nobody suggests is how this technology should have been discerned from the rest without future knowledge.

staunton 3y ago

> Unfortunately universities are not immune to the realities of living in a capitalistic society This is of course true (trivially and of absolutely anything in a capitalist society). However, it's somewhat ironic in that academia as an economic system is basically communist and rests on funding and planning by state bureaucracies. We are in fact discussing the kinds of corruption and misaligned incentives that plague communist systems. That is not to say, of course, that just making it "more capitalist" would immediately improve it.

ModernMech 3y ago
Government investing money in private sector research is not communism. And there is no central planning going on here, it's quite distributed. At the top the people making the decisions on how much money to be allocated to research are democratically elected in free and fair elections. At the bottom, the people using the money are distributed across thousands of independent organizations, working on their own things.