Timothy Birdnow

I was discussing government funding of science and pointed out the government took over most science funding in the latter 20th century. This is a distillation of a couple of comments I left on a Facebook friend's wall:

The government took over most science funding in the late '70's, which happened to coincide with the rise of global warming alarmism (after the failure of global cooling). The science of climatology was a small branch of meteorology at the time. It grew into a major discipline, overshadowing meteorology thanks to the gobs of money flowing in. Who was going to kill the golden goose by saying climate change isn't a problem? Every institution doing research would cut anyone who dared say it loose, and the alarmists got into positions of authority everywhere because they could bring home the bacon. He who pays the bills is the boss, and for a generation the Federal Government has been the sugar daddy. It's little wonder science has become so politicized. They are giving their paymasters the results desired in return for cash.

It started during the Cold War. The Feds had been increasingly involved in science funding to guarantee we did not fall behind the Soviets, and Jimmy Carter took over a huge block of it with his Department of Energy and other initiatives.

I don't have a link specifically about it, but here are two that might have something (I didn't have a chance to open them as I'm using my old computer.) https://www.science20.com/news_articles/boom_and_bust_government_takes_over_science_funding_becomes_prone_bubble_formation-125040 and https://www.science20.com/news_articles/boom_and_bust_government_takes_over_science_funding_becomes_prone_bubble_formation-125040

Most science in America is funded by government grants these days. https://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/who_pays through the National Science Foundation or the National Institute for Health or NASA or NOAA or other such entities. That didn't used to be the case; much of the science was funded by Foundations and corporate interests in the past. If I have time I'll research it better for you; It always takes a lot of digging trying to find this sort of info on the search engines, largely because they don't want people to realize that things used to be different.

By the late '70's the Feds were funding 70% of all scientific research in America. The U.S. government spends $160 billion on research, for example,,.

While spending is down in recent years, it is still largely a government controlled enterprise. According to the AAAS https://www.bu.edu/articles/2015/funding-for-scientific-research/ "Gloria Waters, vice president and associate provost for research, says finding funding sources other than the federal government has become "a top priority” of the University" So funding is the top priority - and when government wants certain results who is going to buck them?

Anyway, hope that helps. I had to do some quick searches (I don't have time to spend on it this morning as I have a doctor's appointment.)

Oh, one more thing Doug Thorbern; everyone remembers Eisenhower's Farewell Address where he warned about the "Military-Industrial complex" but most people have never read the speech or what he was saying. He was warning against Big Tech back then, as we were already funding research and development with taxpayer money and Ike saw this relationship between government and big tech as a very dangerous path. It was happening even than, and it only got worse over time.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:03 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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