Comment by the_snooze

5 days ago

Yup, people really need to learn their history. The modern federally-funded research university system came about as a direct result of the US getting caught with their pants down after Sputnik. The government decided it's in its best strategic interests to maintain long-term investments in basic and applied research. Those aren't things you can just spin up on short notice, though it's easy to kill it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_crisis#Response

3 comments

the_snooze

Reply
mullingitover  5 days ago

Also, isn't a ton of the IP from federally funded research just handed over to US corporations for free or pennies on the dollar?

Something tells me this is more of the current administration threatening to completely wreck US prosperity if they don't get wins on their bigoted social war agenda.

  • chneu  5 days ago

    Absolutely. Everything in tech is hugely funded by tax payer money.

    Modern semiconductor manufacturing is nearly all researched in partnership with federal funding. It's viewed as a national security issue.

    The best theory I've heard so far is that Trump has this wild idea that if he can tank the US economy into a recession/depression then he can renegotiate our debt. He thinks this will save the US trillions of dollars. Except it'll cost the US trillions of dollars as well. I don't know if he's smart enough to think this up but it does kinda seem like what he's doing.