Does Economics Deserve Federal Funding?

As Marxist despots and tribal socialists from Cuba to Greece have discovered to their huge disappointment, governments can neither create wealth nor effectively redistribute it.  They can only expropriate and watch it dissipate.  George Gilder

George Rebane

My considered opinion is NO.  Economics nobelists Gary Becker and James Heckman argue YES in their 10aug12 piece ‘Why the Dismal Science Deserves Federal Funding’.

The authors point out that “basic economic and social research … are public goods that are difficult to appropriate privately.”  And they make a good point about the paucity of basic research coming out of the private sector because of its cost and riskiness.  Some of the successes they cite about federally funded research are little off the mark, such as the DNA sequencing of the human genome competition ‘won’ by Celera Corporation.

Government research has often been carried out by private enterprises receiving federal monies, and retaining some proprietary rights upon success.  And research performed in government facilities has benefitted from the competition of parallel/similar efforts in the private sector.  But all this is not the reason for my NO.

Pure and applied science projects like genome sequencing are ideologically antiseptic.  However, research that has to do with individual and aggregate behaviors is very much colored by ideologies of preferred social orders, and what kind of individuals best fit into such orders.

Government funding is no more unbiased than corporate funding of research that is later used to found or substantiate a ‘truth’ that winds up reflected in public policy.  Only liberal naifs and agenda-driven progressives argue that monies from idealogically tainted bureaucracies are ideologically neutral.  Conservatives have long focused their gimlet eye on such funding, and have cited volumes of evidence to support their apprehension.

The current academic environment is preponderantly and persistently leftwing because of the rotating door with academics cycling between campus and capitol.  A poster child of this is the funding for climate research over the last twenty years – the correct answer is already established, and your successful research proposal should do everything to abet that answer.

Economics is a social science, no matter how many equations the new generation of economists throws at the public and politicians to paint themselves more akin to physics and engineering.  Economists belong to the weekly reported cohort of professionals who are constantly ‘surprised’ at reports of realworld economic numbers.  They can no more predict the detailed behavior of a complex economic system than can the climate scientists reliably predict (or even interpret) the behavior of earth’s climate.

Yet their published output and testimonies to government bodies are used as the basis for public policies reflected in our laws and regulations.  And such public policies are the desiderata of the dominant ideology in government.  It does not take a genius to conclude what kind of economic research will most likely receive federal funding in such an environment – the template for it is long established and working in other funded arenas.

Comments

[Gregory]

Should any valuable research get direct federal funding? Let's remember the other major warning (besides that of the military-industrial complex) of Eisenhower's farewell speech:

"Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades. In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers. The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present -- and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."

Let's get back to the model of free universities and basic academic freedoms, and roll back the culture of applying for grants for specific research. Stop the practice of the NSF deciding who will get grants to research what.

[David King]

"As Marxist despots and tribal socialists from Cuba to Greece have discovered to their huge disappointment, governments can neither create wealth nor effectively redistribute it. They can only expropriate and watch it dissipate." George Gilder

Yep!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkRseHu6n2E

[billy T]

Social engineering is a tricky business. As Dr. Rebane has pointed out before repeatedly on various topics, the evidence must stand on its own rather than achieve a predetermined result. Releasing the results and "evidence" (political goals in disguise) before the Copenhagen Eco Love Feast had even finished reviewing and studying and peer reviewing cold hard facts is putting the horse before the cart. We as a nation now have 100 million folks on some kind of government assistance, excluding Social Security and Medicare. 100 million folks who have their hands out on a monthly basis. The Great Society is a society with the slave mentality. Oh feed me masta, feed me Masta. Government's idea was to create jobs via government spending via the Stimulus. We got grad students studying the relationship of beers consumed by college coeds to promiscuity. We got studies of shrimp in little tanks on treadmills. One tiny example of job creation only cost 50 grand. It went to the U of Alaska. They spent the money to fly 9 students and 2 chaperones to Copenhagen to have a group hugs with Native Peoples on the other side of the pond. No jobs created and the fuel spent on the trip would heat 2 homes in the Northern Frontier for a year. Studies? Sure, Krugman got himself a nice Nobel Prize for studies. Now Krugman is sniping at the President of Estonia and every single economist of statue that has proven his ideas/ideals/beliefs/economic theories flat out wrong. No, they don't attack Krugman. He attacks them on Twitter as angrily as a FUE snipes at everybody who does not agree with High Ass-Holiness. Oh, yes my Lard. Whenever politicians do not want to tackle a hot issue or want to buy time, they form another Blue Ribbon Commission to commission more studies. Problem with all these studies is that good people with good intentions get a taste of power and go power mad. No big Cokes, No big movie popcorn, No big baby formula and no free vibrators. Study says we need more studies.

[TomKenworth]

"Let's get back to the model of free universities and basic academic freedoms, and roll back the culture of applying for grants for specific research. Stop the practice of the NSF deciding who will get grants to research what."

Yes, let's either have the researchers fund their projects with bake sales, or have a lotto for grant money. Fortunately advanced math research can be done with just a blackboard, just ask Einstein.

[TomKenworth]

I suspected that McCain threw the election, as he and the Republican party both knew the economy would be tanking big time. They originally thought that maybe by 2012, it would be time to move in and take credit for a recovering economy. Now they are convinced it won't happen until 2016, at the earliest, and that they can muck with Congress in the meantime, singing "Oh if only Romney had been elected" all the while. That explains tomorrow morning's choice.