US Federal Government

[Renton]

You have based much of your arguments on the (obvious) falsehood that, at a minimum, monetary incentive is the strongest possible incentive, and frighteningly you seem to at times hold financial incentive up as if it is the only valid incentive.

Monetary incentive exists one way or the other regardless of whether the government is the one doling out the money, the difference is that governments lack the accountability for such spending. Private individuals have to be accountable for their costs or they will go bankrupt. Do you not think that people who use government aid/grants for research are incentivized by those grants?

Even if it were the case that financial incentives are the only true catalyst to forward progress, your analysis of the grant system is woefully flawed. If I get a grant to find out how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop, and I drag my feet, someone else is going to come along, get a grant to do the same, start after me, finish before me, and insure that I have that much harder of a time getting a grant in the future.

This is true, but less true than would be the case if the money was provided voluntary by individuals or corporations, who again, have to be held accountable for that money. The Wire and Treme illustrate quite well the problem of how government decides to allocate money and aid resources, despite David Simon being pretty much a liberal.

I mean, seriously, are you under the impression that the teams of researchers made up of grad students working under a professor are dragging their feet to "keep the faucet turned on"?

No, probably the researchers are as conscientious as one can be, given the sometimes warped incentive structure inherent in government aid. I'm more worried about a government's (who has basically no expertise on the intricacies of bacteriology) lack of ability to determine the value of what it's paying for, and thus, propensity to overpay on dead end projects, or underpay and prematurely cancel ones with promise.

I'm not saying its pure retard incompetence that leads governments to make mistakes like this, its actually quite natural for them to be so clueless on such esoteric subjects. The problem is that governments presume to know whats best in every situation, in a world rich with intricacy.

Renton-- I am afraid you have been bamboozled.

I mean, seriously,

You're letting your ideology cloud your view and bias your thoughts. You're brushing aside grant work in a flawed, simplistic and almost laughable manner because it doesn't fit into the worldview you've adopted. That's pretty lame.

Could you please stop arguing with me like I'm your 12 year old little brother? It's mildly infuriating.