Most people are bad at making long-term decisions. Some are not. Biases can be overcome with sustained training and dedication. Using taxes to fund basic resea

Most people are bad at making long-term decisions. Some are not. Biases can be overcome with sustained training and dedication. Using taxes to fund basic research is one of many ways our institutions have a countervailing effect towards long-term thinking. In fact we should be taxing much more and doing much, much more of it. This is explicitly anti-majoritarian, yes. Corruption is indeed a potential issue, and we should focus on ways to e.g. root out peer review rings. But the numbers we're talking about are tiny.