AWKWARD ZOMBIE

All we need is a proper patent system where companies lose the patent after X amounts of years after which it becomes public, and where they can't prolong it with stupid bullshit.

They have that for medicine. It's why there's a generic version of anything. By the time the medicine is approved by FDA they have a short window to sell it exclusively which is why the price is so high. After that, the patent is released and other people can sell it.

Unless they mix a generic antihistamine or anti-inflammatory into it and call it a new drug. Or find a "new" use for it and do the same.

At any rate, making all science government controlled is a terrible idea. First of all, they would never be able to even reach the same scale of research. About all the spectacular advances made in the past were thanks to private researchers, at best they merely gained government funding. Second of all, are you going to outlaw any and all experimenting or what? Will the feds bust down the doors of high school science fairs? Will Coca Cola face trials for mixing two flavours?

I'm not suggesting all science be government controlled. Just that it should never be done for profit. When the US went to the moon thousands of useful technologies trickled down to the rest of the country. Private companies would probably sit on that stuff and sue anyone who attempted to bring it to the public eye.

The US went to the moon to show it's superiority towards Russia, not out of charity. The technologies that were released after were sold for cheddar, and also not just given away. Nothing is for free.

Science like most things costs cheddar. Even if scientists were given their resources for free by magic, it's not like they can spend years of their lives without needing cheddar themselves. Why even spend all those years studying to become a scientist if there's no pay off at the end? It's a good thing if science makes cheddar on it's own without the government.

Governments are at the mercy of voters. Voters always demand instant results like spoiled children. Science isn't always 'We're gonna work on a cure for cancer-Let's go team!' Sometimes it's just fucking around with something interesting until you get a bunch of other interesting things out of it.

Say though that scientists did not profit off of science directly and instead got grants (many do) but say then the government DOESN'T interfere with demands for some kinda war machine or cure for the common cold. Then you'd end up with the opposite problem. Scientists fucking around getting free cheddar.

Being able to profit off discoveries drives the work to be more useful than say... trying to extract sunlight out of cucumbers.

Well you don't see the government fighting patent wars like Apple do you. Profit isn't the primary purpose anyway.

No, they just fight regular wars. And profit is the goal, how else are they going to fund their armies?

Most scientists I know don't do it for the cheddar. My dad used to work at NASA, I know my scientists.


A lot of great things were produced thanks to fucking around. See Penicillin, for example.


I guess consumers and shareholders are way better at being patient?


Clearly with the power of jesus and low taxes and trickle down economics

I am a scientist (or studying to be one at least) and I do it for the cheddar. But anecdotes won't get us anywhere, I'm willing to bet your dad would quit his job if he didn't get paid though.

Economics and capitalism is what brought about this golden era of technology. Why change a winning formula?

While you may not do it "for the cheddar" the point still stands that life costs cheddar anyway. No matter how many people say that don't do it for the cheddar, they're certainly not going to do it for no cheddar either. That part has to come in there somehow.

I don't doubt that your Dad did what he did for NASA out of the love he has for the science, but the food he fed you with, and the clothing he clothed you with weren't free.

I'm not suggesting people do it for no cheddar?

You can't run a company without making profit, not for long anyway. You need a margin of excess cheddar to make up for times when you'll turn losses.

Do you even know what being non-profit means? It just means that any revenue generated must go back into the company and must not go to dividends, bonuses, what have you.