[quote=pri_dk]”Do some research” is another way of saying “I don’t have any evidence, but I’ll just tell you it exists anyway.”
Since you are so skilled at it (and the rest of us are inept), please show us some “research” that demonstrates how companies like Qualcomm, Intuit, Apple, Microsoft, Genentech, etc. get their capital, R&D, or ANY significant funds from “taxpayers in almost every case.”
Sorry you have to do it yourself. But I’m certain that none of us feel like spending hours googling for some fact that doesn’t exist in the desperate hope of finding something that supports your point of view.[/quote]
“The US government spends more than other countries on military R&D, although the proportion has fallen from around 30% in the 1980s to under 20%[1]. Government funding for medical research amounts to approximately 36% in the U.S. The government funding proportion in certain industries is higher, and it dominates research in social science and humanities. Similarly, with some exceptions (e.g. biotechnology) government provides the bulk of the funds for basic scientific research. In commercial research and development, all but the most research-oriented corporations focus more heavily on near-term commercialisation possibilities rather than “blue-sky” ideas or technologies (such as nuclear fusion).”
“An additional advantage to government sponsored research is that the results are publicly shared, whereas with privately funded research the ideas are controlled by a single group. Consequently, government sponsored research can result in mass collaborative projects that are beyond the scope of isolated private researchers.
“The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…” With an annual budget of about $6.9 billion (FY 2010), we are the funding source for approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America’s colleges and universities. In many fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences, NSF is the major source of federal backing.”
“We are tasked with keeping the United States at the leading edge of discovery in areas from astronomy to geology to zoology. So, in addition to funding research in the traditional academic areas, the agency also supports “high-risk, high pay-off” ideas, novel collaborations and numerous projects that may seem like science fiction today, but which the public will take for granted tomorrow. And in every case, we ensure that research is fully integrated with education so that today’s revolutionary work will also be training tomorrow’s top scientists and engineers.”
“The content and examples provided here illustrate some of the economic benefits the nation reaps when companies are created as a result of discoveries in federally funded university laboratories. While there are countless companies that have made use of the fruits of academic research, the roots of the companies highlighted here can be traced directly to seminal research conducted at a university and sponsored by a federal agency.
Were it not for the federally supported research, these companies – their products and services, and the jobs and economic growth that have resulted – likely would not exist.”
“Universities conduct the majority of basic research in the United States— 55 percent in 2008. Business and industry conduct less than 20 percent of basic research in the United States.”
“The federal government is the primary source of funding for basic research conducted in the United States, providing some 60 percent of funding. The second largest source of basic research funding is the academic institutions themselves.”
Medical research [Note: this is for ALL R&D, not just basic research. – CAR]
“Biomedical research and development (R&D) is a large enterprise in the United States. In fiscal year (FY) 1999, the last year for which comprehensive survey data are available, federal spending on health R&D was $15.7 billion—21 percent of all federal expenditures on R&D that year (NIH, 2004a). Those figures are much larger in 2004, if only because the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—which supports roughly 83 percent of federally funded biomedical research—doubled between FY 1998 and FY 2003 and currently stands at more than $28.0 billion. The other major funders of biomedical research are the for-profit pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical equipment industries, which have outspent NIH in recent years.”
“Founded in 1887, the National Institutes of Health today is one of the world’s foremost medical research centers, and the Federal focal point for medical research in the United States. The NIH, comprising 27 separate Institutes and Centers, is one of eight health agencies of the Public Health Service which, in turn, is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.”
“Details about where the agreed upon $38 billion in cuts will come from are still emerging, but one of the hardest hit agencies will likely be the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest investor in biomedical research.”
“Funding “basic science” doesn’t sound appealing in lean-budget times, but cutting research in times of economic woe is counterproductive. Nearly 90 percent of the NIH research budget gets distributed across the country, employing scientists and lab technicians. And miracle cures don’t spring fully formed from the R&D departments at Pfizer and Merck. Jon Retzlaff, director of government affairs at the American Association for Cancer Research, explains that basic science takes too long for pharmaceutical companies because “their investors don’t have that timeline. They take something very promising and then try to take that to the finish line. [The NIH] is really the foundation of everything that the pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies are able to do.”
No need to spend hours searching for facts that “don’t exist.” Just Google “funding sources for basic (scientific) research.” It’s pretty simple for those of us who “get all our information from Rolling Stone articles.”
Your turn, “Mr. Financial Genius Who Doesn’t Like to do Research, but Likes to Attack Those Who Bring Facts Instead of Emotional Propaganda.”
