No the solution is that government politicians has no business in deciding recommendations for diet, vaccines, additives, and what dietary fat should be used for frying.
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I actually agree with both of you, that we do need to fund basic science. Also that the gov. should stay out of the way on what we put into our bodies. I’m pretty close to libertarian.
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Such an important concept for people to understand.
Sure it’s not perfect but without teaching and learning basic science at that level, there will be no science, except what the oligarchs want to make money from.
Lots of huge companies have strong R&D budgets and are market driven to do so. Many also do primary reseach on their own dime BUT that then become “proprietary” and the cost/benefit to the consumer is skewed by the corporate necessity of ROI.
Publicly funded primary research in both private and public institutions is critical in not just the results of the science but in raising up every generation of scientist to a higher level. This allows for failure that commerce cannot afford or chooses not to afford as it affects the stock price…
When doing R&D (neither of which can stand alone) it gets expensive. Here in Canada we have some excellent programs for private R&D work. IRAP and SR&ED (we just call it shred) have stimulated small companies to take risks that they would not otherwise be able to afford.
I’ve worked on more than a few IRAP and a lot of SR&ED supported R&D projects that resulted in spectacular success but the failures over many years of hard work required to get to those successes would be unsustainable by a small company.
Those successes led to more jobs, more tech being developed and still more jobs.
So yeah, without the public purse helping out with primary research we would all be worse off than we are today.
Here in the US, DARPA has been a frequent source of funding for research that seems pretty removed from strictly defence applications. A lot of valuable research that would otherwise never get funded got under way thanks to that money. Who knows what happens next, there seem to be a lot of changes underfoot with the new administration. However “saving” on R&D is tragically shortsighted, as R&D tends to return much more on that investment long term and seen in the context of benefits to the whole society. Modern civilization was built on science research supported by the whole society (i.e. government funding), it’s odd to see that engine now being dismantled or impaired by those who profess themselves to be the guardians of Western Civilization. How do they think Western Civilization came to be so dominant? Government funded science was a fundamental pillar of that building.
Speaking of the devil, here we go:
Department of Defense issues over 100 stop-work orders to Northwestern researchers
“Schill noted that projects affected include research into wearable devices, robotics, nanotechnology, foreign military training, Parkinson’s disease among others.”
Maybe they were using gender bending woke mice in the research, so it had to be cut. No more trans nanotechnology, feminist robotics and non-red meat soy based wearable devices. We have been saved.
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The internet is a good example of DARPA funding. This started with Arpanet.
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I agree, and this applies to the previous administration too, who tried to eliminate people from participating in society for not doing as they were told during covid (as much as I know how strongly in favor you are of the covid shots, I feel that personal choice is a separate issue).
Same. Libertarian all the way. Let me do whatever the F I want and stay out of my life as long as I’m not hurting anyone. This should be common sense, but ideology beats common sense these days.
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Public health policies, in general, are there for that exact reason.