Comment by fn-mote
4 days ago
Yesterday I was reading comments about how the market could pay for research and avoid the “distorting effects” of public funding.
Is there any way to get a better outcome for the public here, or is “do good stuff then sell out” the way it’s always going to be?
What distorting effects of public funding? What about the distortionary effects of the market? I'll offer the suggestion that what you read is brainrotting private market propaganda designed to erode the public institutions that make America happier, healthier, and wealthier.
In economics discussions regarding public funding policy, the concern of "crowding out" commercial firms or nonprofits is a real concern. It's definitely an observed, measured, and reported phenomenon.
In the end, incentives matter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowding_out_(economics)
There is no private market entity with an incentive to provide research to the public, so in this sense there is no crowding out. Providing research to the public enables the discovery of new products which would otherwise have not been created. Public research is a public good that makes our nation happier, healthier, and wealthier.
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That whole discussion is based on the assumption that commercial firms or nonprofits are better in some way than publicly funded research. That is the stupid neoliberal dogma that private and market economy always are better than things that are run by our elected officials. That dogma has to die.
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