Trump OMB head Mulvaney is brain dead about govt funded science
He voted against funding research on the ZIKA virus and asked whether the govenment should fund any research on anything.
I guess he thinks business will appropriately fund science.
That is brain dead. Say an invention will generate value of $10,000,000. It is economically valuable to fund it for up to $9,500,000, say. But no business will spend that much on it because they will not get the full value of the invention back. First, they can get a patent for only 20 years. So maybe that cuts their return in half. And other companies will steal some of the benefit of the invention - companies in China or India often steal intellectual property.
But the govt can fund the full $9,500,000 and make a profit, so to speak.
Bell Labs used to do a lot of reseach because they had a monopoly. Other firms will not fund research to the appropriate level.