- 09 Sep 2012 17:14
#14053500
First, I think many companies would spend resources on relevant R&D. Obviously a company would rather have R&D in its field funded by government. It is often cheaper to lobby government to spend the money than it is to spend it yourself. If that alternative exist, why not pursue it? But that doesn't mean that economically-relevant (even relatively long-term) research wouldn't be privately funded.
While the Internet, Space exploration and the Human genome were government funded, they could have easily been funded (probably at slightly different times and with different priorities) privately. Flight, Celera's parallel genome project and virtually all computer technologies on which we rely today were privately funded.
Theoretical research tends to be relatively inexpensive, and could be funded from tuition paid by graduate students (or corporate sponsorship). Expensive experimental research (such as LHC) would be more problematic. Researchers would have to persuade the public (or a few interested high-net-worth individuals) to contribute based on their interest in the subject. Free-riding could be mitigated by allowing people to give conditional contributions (which are not collected unless a threshold of overall contributions is achieved), by giving people special access, or simply relying on people's altruistic contributions.
taxizen's suggestion is an excellent one.
While the Internet, Space exploration and the Human genome were government funded, they could have easily been funded (probably at slightly different times and with different priorities) privately. Flight, Celera's parallel genome project and virtually all computer technologies on which we rely today were privately funded.
Theoretical research tends to be relatively inexpensive, and could be funded from tuition paid by graduate students (or corporate sponsorship). Expensive experimental research (such as LHC) would be more problematic. Researchers would have to persuade the public (or a few interested high-net-worth individuals) to contribute based on their interest in the subject. Free-riding could be mitigated by allowing people to give conditional contributions (which are not collected unless a threshold of overall contributions is achieved), by giving people special access, or simply relying on people's altruistic contributions.
taxizen's suggestion is an excellent one.
Free men are not equal and equal men are not free.
Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.
Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.