Weather Channel Founder says"Global Warming is Biggest Scam in History

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There seems to me to be an implicit assumption that efficiency is very important. Clearly it is important, but only one of many factors that is used to take the measure of society. Even if government funded research is less efficient somehow, that isn't necessarily the be all and end all of the situation.

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Yeah you need basic research, not just applied research. And profit organizations tend to prefer applied research. It gets too easy to say that 'the market would see the need for basic research' when little supports that notion. Esp. when you consider things such as patents and copyright it can get horrible.

Basic research have often set the total gain of many over the incredible gain of few by releasing valuable research material and that rocks.

On the other side of the coin - my field is plagued with financially based research where we don't get to see the material for peer review unless we pay for a license and it sucks and can stop academic progress in the field.