Replies to post #139524 on Biotech Values

[vinmantoo]

Grthz,

Hmm, since 2000, government funding of the military has sky-rocketed. Since 1990, since government funding of research has increased. Since 1990, since government funding of military has sky-rocketed. These are all true but have nothing to do with the point PGS was making about government funding of scientific research since 2003, after which the push for increased research funding essentially stopped.

What also hasn't been factored in is that a significant chunk of the small increase since 2003 has been for salaries and for targeted research rather than basic research. This isn't a good trend and needs to be reversed.

[poorgradstudent]

However, measured since 2000, government research funding has increased.

Yes, it has.

It has also increased since the inception of the NIH. So what? By your reasoning, that just means the science funded by the NIH has been deteriorating since they opened the doors to the institute*.

Again, you should read back what I posted initially. It remains true and the data are what they are. Have at them as you will. I was just giving you a decade's worth of relevant data to test your hypothesis.




*Your blanket comment about bad science increasing as government's role increases is still out to lunch, mostly due to the way the NIH is structured. If you're basing it on funding alone, it's obvious that everything increases over time... you just have to figure out how far back you want to go to make your specific ideological point. You can also say the same about private enterprise, and how they're more apt to be bumbling behemoths as their revenues increase (see Pfizer). More to the point, there are multiple reasons why bad science is increasing. The value in the discussion is to find out how to improve things rather than toss out some dogmatic explanation.