Taxpayer-funded science

Started by 11mc22, June 19, 2009, 11:49:44 PM

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April 01, 2010, 12:23:57 PM #15 Last Edit: April 01, 2010, 01:05:28 PM by surhotchaperchlorome
Quote from: surhotchaperchlorome on March 31, 2010, 07:00:24 PMFor tax payer funded science:
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Me:  "/watch?v=C_PVI6V6o-4 ('The Myth of Science as a Public Good (by Terence Kealey)' by Nielsio)
If you haven't watched it already, I suggest you do.

Has this ever actually happened?
The scenario you describe?"


Jacob Spinney:  "Absolutely. Just turn on late night TV infomercials. They sell all kinds of very simple items that are super easy to copy. Yet they provide quite a bit of value for the consumer and took quite a bit of money to create."

More from ladyattis: "Two ways to make it profitable come to mind.

1) Distribute the capital costs among many firms. That means for a given product that could be copied easily in the first place you get as many of the firms that would want to sell it to put in some of their own capital even if it's a small sum. This is actually quite common in many fields from my understanding.
2) Trade secret. This may only apply to a select few products that are 'expensive' to create like a recipe for a beverage or sauce, but it's still a viable option to recover losses.

In any case, I don't think you or I could justify an enforced legal monopoly on so-called intellectual property."
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

Quote from: MrBogosity on August 14, 2009, 01:26:18 PM
Yes, because Galileo and Kepler both received LOTS of government funding to do their work...  ::)

Yeah, and didn't they receive active hostility from their respective dioceses and governments?
"Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." - Frederic Bastiat.