[HN Gopher] US science agencies on track to hit 25-year funding low
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US science agencies on track to hit 25-year funding low
Author : jedwhite
Score : 27 points
Date : 2023-10-06 21:53 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
| ofslidingfeet wrote:
| Maybe instead of hiring private contractors to invent new
| propulsion systems and then conceal them from the public good, we
| should give some of our ~$600 billion military budget to these
| agencies.
| oldbbsnickname wrote:
| The official budget for 2023 was $773 B with ~$350 B going to
| contractors.
|
| There are multiple elements to issuing grants. It's not simply
| moving money around from one line item to another. If agencies
| have been gutted or don't have the budget, then can't write
| requests for grant proposals or can't offer what they don't
| have.
| xyzelement wrote:
| I am curious, let's say we wound down the military and gave all
| the money to something else... what do you think would
| immediately happen to us right after?
| RangerScience wrote:
| (not OP)
|
| Defense contractors would start pulling out the cost-saving
| technologies, etc that they've been sitting on to win bids,
| now that there's less money in the pot. Cost-plus contracts
| are whack, man.
|
| Source: Way back when, worked in industrial augmented
| reality, and some colleagues came from defense (ship
| building) because of _exactly_ this issue. Their prior
| employer had (quietly) pioneered various uses of AR in ship
| assembly, which drastically reduced costs, but wasn 't
| actually deploying it because cost-saving actually _reduces_
| their profits, so they only actually use them when it comes
| time to win bids.
|
| Pretty sure you're fishing for "we get attacked" tho, which I
| neither agree with, nor have the background to coherently
| argue against.
| ofslidingfeet wrote:
| I wouldn't be in favor of winding down the military. I would
| be in favor of giving private contractors a choice between
| subjecting themselves to meaningful oversight or we can
| reallocate their funding to entities that will.
| rl3 wrote:
| > _Maybe instead of hiring private contractors to invent new
| propulsion systems and then conceal them from the public good,
| ..._
|
| Citation needed.
| [deleted]
| peepeepoopoo43 wrote:
| [flagged]
| roenxi wrote:
| By traditional indicators the US is broke. Debt to GDP is at
| historic crisis levels, debt service is eclipsing the military
| budget (though I didn't check if that includes the spending for
| the war in Ukraine) and it is unclear where the oomph to pay for
| retirees will come from. The main thing optimists seems to be
| pinning their hope on is that the authorities can print money and
| it will all turn out OK.
|
| What is the conversation around science funding meant to look
| like? Spending money on productive investments is a great idea,
| but the practice of the US government is nowhere near that.
| tonmoy wrote:
| Debt to GDP has no meaning as one is a balance and the other is
| a balance over a time. A better indicator will be Debt to GDP
| until the year infinity. Same goes for military budget, it's
| for a year.
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(page generated 2023-10-06 23:00 UTC)