My rough guess is that US funding of physics research has been at best flat in real dollars over most of my career, but probably down significantly overall. This does not end well ...
Thursday, November 06, 2014
US basic research down 25% in GDP terms (10 years)
Earlier this week I was in DC for a Council on Competitiveness meeting of CTOs and university VPRs. The figure below, from this report card, really scared me:
My rough guess is that US funding of physics research has been at best flat in real dollars over most of my career, but probably down significantly overall. This does not end well ...
My rough guess is that US funding of physics research has been at best flat in real dollars over most of my career, but probably down significantly overall. This does not end well ...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Blog Archive
Labels
- physics (356)
- genetics (292)
- globalization (263)
- finance (262)
- brainpower (255)
- genomics (230)
- technology (220)
- american society (205)
- China (186)
- innovation (178)
- economics (171)
- psychometrics (168)
- ai (164)
- science (164)
- photos (162)
- psychology (151)
- travel (142)
- machine learning (131)
- universities (125)
- biology (123)
- higher education (120)
- genetic engineering (118)
- credit crisis (115)
- human capital (114)
- startups (105)
- iq (104)
- cognitive science (97)
- autobiographical (81)
- careers (81)
- credit crunch (78)
- statistics (76)
- elitism (75)
- podcasts (74)
- evolution (73)
- gilded age (73)
- income inequality (70)
- political correctness (70)
- politics (69)
- quantum mechanics (69)
- social science (68)
- talks (68)
- geopolitics (66)
- genius (64)
- books (61)
- caltech (61)
- history of science (59)
- bounded rationality (58)
- mma (56)
- sci fi (55)
- harvard (53)
- silicon valley (53)
- academia (51)
- kids (50)
- education (49)
- mathematics (49)
- MSU (48)
- bgi (48)
- realpolitik (48)
- cdo (45)
- derivatives (42)
- behavioral economics (40)
- biotech (40)
- intellectual history (40)
- jiujitsu (40)
- neuroscience (40)
- history (39)
- literature (39)
- physical training (38)
- ufc (37)
- bjj (36)
- bubbles (36)
- film (36)
- mortgages (36)
- computing (35)
- video (34)
- expert prediction (33)
- google (32)
- hedge funds (32)
- many worlds (32)
- affirmative action (31)
- black holes (30)
- economic history (30)
- foo camp (30)
- race relations (30)
- movies (29)
- quants (29)
- efficient markets (28)
- nuclear weapons (28)
- security (28)
- von Neumann (28)
- feynman (27)
- sports (27)
- music (26)
- entrepreneurs (25)
- housing (25)
- obama (25)
- singularity (25)
- subprime (25)
- berkeley (24)
- taiwan (24)
- conferences (23)
- meritocracy (22)
- ultimate fighting (22)
- athletics (21)
- venture capital (21)
- wall street (21)
- cds (20)
- internet (20)
- quantum field theory (20)
- scifoo (20)
- blogging (19)
- gender (18)
- goldman sachs (18)
- new yorker (17)
- smpy (17)
- treasury bailout (17)
- university of oregon (17)
- algorithms (16)
- cryptography (16)
- freeman dyson (16)
- japan (16)
- autism (15)
- cosmology (15)
- oppenheimer (15)
- personality (15)
- dna (14)
- fitness (14)
- happiness (14)
- height (14)
- social networks (14)
- wwii (14)
- chess (13)
- christmas (13)
- hedonic treadmill (13)
- les grandes ecoles (13)
- privacy (13)
- probability (13)
- aspergers (12)
- blade runner (12)
- india (12)
- malcolm gladwell (12)
- neanderthals (12)
- net worth (12)
- nobel prize (12)
- philosophy of mind (12)
- television (12)
- entropy (11)
- geeks (11)
- government (11)
- harvard society of fellows (11)
- nsa (11)
- research (11)
- string theory (11)
- Einstein (10)
- ability (10)
- football (10)
- italy (10)
- mutants (10)
- nerds (10)
- olympics (10)
- pseudoscience (10)
- war (10)
- Go (9)
- art (9)
- complexity (9)
- crossfit (9)
- dating (9)
- encryption (9)
- eugene (9)
- flynn effect (9)
- james salter (9)
- pop culture (9)
- turing test (9)
- alan turing (8)
- data mining (8)
- determinism (8)
- france (8)
- keynes (8)
- manhattan (8)
- pca (8)
- philip k. dick (8)
- quantum computers (8)
- real estate (8)
- robot genius (8)
- russia (8)
- usain bolt (8)
- aig (7)
- alpha (7)
- ashkenazim (7)
- basketball (7)
- energy (7)
- free will (7)
- fx (7)
- game theory (7)
- games (7)
- hugh everett (7)
- paris (7)
- poker (7)
- qcd (7)
- success (7)
- Fermi problems (6)
- anthropic principle (6)
- bayes (6)
- class (6)
- climate change (6)
- democracy (6)
- drones (6)
- environmentalism (6)
- godel (6)
- nassim taleb (6)
- new york times (6)
- noam chomsky (6)
- patents (6)
- prostitution (6)
- tail risk (6)
- teaching (6)
- volatility (6)
- academia sinica (5)
- bobby fischer (5)
- cold war (5)
- econtalk (5)
- information theory (5)
- iraq war (5)
- kasparov (5)
- luck (5)
- nonlinearity (5)
- perimeter institute (5)
- rationality (5)
- renaissance technologies (5)
- sad but true (5)
- software development (5)
- vietnam war (5)
- warren buffet (5)
- 100m (4)
- Iran (4)
- Poincare (4)
- bill gates (4)
- borges (4)
- cambridge uk (4)
- censorship (4)
- charles darwin (4)
- creativity (4)
- fake alpha (4)
- feminism (4)
- global warming (4)
- hormones (4)
- humor (4)
- inequality (4)
- intellectual property (4)
- judo (4)
- kerviel (4)
- markets (4)
- microsoft (4)
- mixed martial arts (4)
- monsters (4)
- moore's law (4)
- simulation (4)
- solar energy (4)
- soros (4)
- trento (4)
- 200m (3)
- babies (3)
- brain drain (3)
- charlie munger (3)
- chet baker (3)
- correlation (3)
- demographics (3)
- ecosystems (3)
- equity risk premium (3)
- facebook (3)
- fannie (3)
- fst (3)
- intellectual ventures (3)
- jim simons (3)
- language (3)
- lee kwan yew (3)
- lewontin fallacy (3)
- lhc (3)
- magic (3)
- michael lewis (3)
- nathan myhrvold (3)
- neal stephenson (3)
- olympiads (3)
- path integrals (3)
- risk preference (3)
- search (3)
- sec (3)
- sivs (3)
- society generale (3)
- supercomputers (3)
- thailand (3)
- alibaba (2)
- assortative mating (2)
- bear stearns (2)
- bruce springsteen (2)
- charles babbage (2)
- cheng ting hsu (2)
- cloning (2)
- computers (2)
- david mamet (2)
- digital books (2)
- donald mackenzie (2)
- drugs (2)
- eliot spitzer (2)
- empire (2)
- exchange rates (2)
- frauds (2)
- freddie (2)
- gaussian copula (2)
- heinlein (2)
- industrial revolution (2)
- james watson (2)
- ltcm (2)
- mating (2)
- mba (2)
- mccain (2)
- mit (2)
- monkeys (2)
- national character (2)
- nicholas metropolis (2)
- no holds barred (2)
- offices (2)
- oligarchs (2)
- palin (2)
- population structure (2)
- prisoner's dilemma (2)
- skidelsky (2)
- socgen (2)
- sprints (2)
- systemic risk (2)
- twitter (2)
- ussr (2)
- variance (2)
- virtual reality (2)
- abx (1)
- anathem (1)
- andrew lo (1)
- antikythera mechanism (1)
- athens (1)
- atlas shrugged (1)
- ayn rand (1)
- bay area (1)
- beats (1)
- book search (1)
- bunnie huang (1)
- car dealers (1)
- carlos slim (1)
- catastrophe bonds (1)
- cdos (1)
- ces 2008 (1)
- chance (1)
- children (1)
- cochran-harpending (1)
- cpi (1)
- david x. li (1)
- dick cavett (1)
- dolomites (1)
- dune (1)
- eharmony (1)
- epidemics (1)
- escorts (1)
- faces (1)
- fads (1)
- favorite posts (1)
- fiber optic cable (1)
- francis crick (1)
- gary brecher (1)
- gizmos (1)
- greece (1)
- greenspan (1)
- hypocrisy (1)
- igon value (1)
- iit (1)
- inflation (1)
- information asymmetry (1)
- iphone (1)
- jack kerouac (1)
- jaynes (1)
- jfk (1)
- john dolan (1)
- john kerry (1)
- john paulson (1)
- john searle (1)
- john tierney (1)
- jonathan littell (1)
- las vegas (1)
- lawyers (1)
- lehman auction (1)
- les bienveillantes (1)
- lowell wood (1)
- lse (1)
- machine (1)
- mcgeorge bundy (1)
- mexico (1)
- michael jackson (1)
- mickey rourke (1)
- migration (1)
- money:tech (1)
- myron scholes (1)
- netwon institute (1)
- networks (1)
- newton institute (1)
- nfl (1)
- oliver stone (1)
- phil gramm (1)
- philanthropy (1)
- philip greenspun (1)
- portfolio theory (1)
- power laws (1)
- pyschology (1)
- randomness (1)
- recession (1)
- sales (1)
- singapore (1)
- skype (1)
- standard deviation (1)
- star wars (1)
- starship troopers (1)
- students today (1)
- teleportation (1)
- tierney lab blog (1)
- tomonaga (1)
- tyler cowen (1)
- venice (1)
- violence (1)
- virtual meetings (1)
- war nerd (1)
- wealth effect (1)
7 comments:
Instantly reminded of the Munger-Schultz exchange you posted about in 2008:
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2008/03/charlie-munger-ricardo-and-finance.html#disqus_thread
especially this passage:
"You’re locked in this system and you can’t fix it. You’re going to go to a tragic hell in a handbasket, if going to hell involves being once the great leader of the world and finally going to the shallows in terms of leadership."
The ever-expanding welfare state crowds out all other spending. The expansion cannot be stopped, so research dollars will continue to decline. This will have a markedly bad effect on junior faculty.
I think Munger just gave $65M to KITP at UCSB!
How about scientifically illiterate congressmen? A population of students who think STEM is boring? A culture which portrays scientists as crazy social outcasts? Industry that promotes science denial whenever one of their profit centers collides with the public interest? The "welfare state" isn't even an accurate term for the major drivers of "social spending" which are insurance programs to which the participants themselves contribute premiums throughout their working lives. But I guess it is easier to blame poor folks for the fact that our elite thinks their money comes from lawyering rather than from basic science or technology. "Welfare state" or no "welfare state" basic science could be funded at triple the present rate without the least stress to our fiscal situation -- IF we weren't governed by functional illiterates.
Steve
How is this different than the offshoring of manufacturing. It was all good fun while it was those lazy manufacturing guys, but now that it is your big fat American research jobs we should be concerned?
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDMQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.battelle.org%2Fdocs%2Ftpp%2F2014_global_rd_funding_forecast.pdf&ei=HOdcVLzcKISbyQTFmYIQ&usg=AFQjCNE3Y-8is1aHU7WHUTQ7IzvLWFW0pA&bvm=bv.79184187,d.aWw&cad=rja
Since Bayh-Dole allowed federally-funded research to become the exclusive property of corporations, particularly universities, rather than putting it into the public domain, federal research dollars have become pure corporate welfare. That is on top of the egregious skimming by universities of research funds on the pretense of providing facilities (that have already been paid for 3x over) and supporting the overpaid and parasitic campus bureaucracy. The practice of universities demanding to have all patents assigned to them by anyone even attending these schools should also make them unattractive to any inventive person.
Why should the US government subsidize basic research more than it already does? I'll admit that my knee-jerk reaction is to push for more government funding of basic research but it's not clear that society is better off if the government increases this funding.
Basic research is a public good, that is clear. What is not clear is that the US government's current funding of basic research is below the optimum quantity.
All arguments for government provisions of some good require at least two components.
1. An argument for why the good is indeed a public good.
2. An argument for why the government is likely to provide a quantity that is closer to the optimum than what the market provides.
If this ends with the toppling of the current pyramid scheme that is academic science, then maybe it does end well.
Post a Comment