Comment by sien
5 months ago
Currently the OECD average spending on R&D is ~2%. Let's say half of that is government spending.
The OECD's total GDP per year is ~50 trillion. So 1 percent is roughly 500 Bn on research.
So there clearly has to be some accountability. But no doubt it could be improved. As you say publishing everything these days makes more sense with platforms like arXiv.
With taking pay cuts to do research, have you ever seen places offer part time work for something and then allow people to research what they want in the other time ?
Or researchers just doing this with other jobs ?
Ha. Hmm. I just realised I have a cousin who does this.
Is the number big because percent or absolute value? I'm just trying to figure out what you were trying to communicate here.
This is what academia is sold as. I mean I can go make 3x as much money in industry as academia. I'm saying I'm not going to take that pay cut to not have the freedom. I would though if it gave the freedom.
It's a large absolute value. That kind of money is going to come with accountability which is where many of the issues do start.
Presumably it's hard to get part time work that pays that well. That is also a catch.
But if you're getting 3 times the salary if you could work 2 days a week in industry you'd make more than academia and have freedom for the rest of the week.