Government vs Private Research Funding

Why would you fund billions in research if you can get government handouts?

Why not publicly funded R&D?

Can you elaborate why that is ironic? Most of the basic science is funded by governments (throughout the world, not just the US). Isn't that supposed to be the role of government (funding research that has no immediate financial prospects)?

it's a shit argument. Fundamental research funded by the government led to the Googles and OpenAIs of today. If industry funds research, the profits stay in the hands of the same people. When government funds research, new billionaires are minted down the line. if you like billionaires (I don't), you'd fund government research, not hope that the existing billionaires think it's in their interest. We wouldn't know about CFCs and the ozone if CFCs companies funded the rese

Because most of the research is funded by tax dollars?

Because science research is funded by public interests, not private ones.

Think of it like scientific research. Individuals fund short term research by buying products they want, governments fund long term research that nobody else will.

Science should be publicly funded. Capitalist funding of academic research has perverse incentives.

Isn’t this what everyone voted for?I assume this is just more of the same neo-liberalists’ Heritage Foundation at play here. No one is saying science shouldn’t science. Just that the government shouldn’t be in the business of funding it.How else will Elon Musk make his next billion if he doesn’t get to invest in your research and sell it off after your 2 year time is up?

The premise of this article seems to be that since the government funding of scientific research has bore fruits, then it must be justified. The ole saying "a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while" comes to mind. It's worth entertaining the idea that public funding displaces private funding (at a net loss). Burt Rutan makes this argument in his Ted talk on the space industry (h