[HN Gopher] US science agencies on track to hit 25-year funding low ___________________________________________________________________ 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. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-10-06 23:00 UTC)