Who should fund science, and why?

Recently, a fellow Substacker (Richard Hanania) wrote a compelling piece arguing for the continued government-funding of science — with a few suggested tweaks to improve the efforts.

It’s an interesting read, and he makes some compelling points. But I wasn’t convinced and I couldn’t hold my tongue. I said this in the comments:

”The means are the ends. When you steal to fund something you want, you poison the effort. You also misalign the incentives of all people involved. If you value scientific research, don't use stolen money to fund it and don't use the political process (one of the most evil things we have invented) to direct the resources.

If humans value this research (and many of us do), they will band together voluntarily to create institutions to fund it. There will be dynamic competition in the research space. All the incentives of all interested parties will be aligned. With coercion eliminated, the best traits of humanity can be focused on discovering the secrets of this amazing universe we find ourselves in.

All "public goods" arguments are just a lazy pseudo-scientific veneer to justify one group of people stealing from another group of people. Same with "solving coordination problems". The problem is that the people you're stealing from don't share your vision.

Fortunately, the desire for "pure research" is one shared by a very many people. Quit being lazy. Put down the gun. Fund these efforts honestly, and see the results blossom.

Also, thanks for an interesting article, though I disagree with much of it.”

Richard is a smart guy. And he’s read enough opposing views (Terence Kealey, for example) and spoken to enough free market economists (Bryan Caplan, Tyler Cowen, etc) to be aware of good arguments against public funding of science.

Still, Richard knows what he wants and he doesn’t care if he has to steal to get it. That doesn’t make him unique in this crony political system of ours, and as he points out, this theft is hardly the largest one we suffer. And as he also points out, often the results of this funding are cool and useful.

But it’s still theft, and I still oppose it. I also suspect we would have more and better pure scientific research if the government weren’t involved at all.

Maybe one fine day we will find out.

Naturally,

Adam