Comment · Thu, April 4, 2013 · Ceretropic
Why Spend a Billion Dollars to Map the Human Brain? - Dana Smith
What they were answering
FeatherMaster · 0 points
I'm not big on more public spending when our government's deficit is inexcusably high.
This is something that the private sector and academia will eventually just do on their own, without the need for government funding.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
I used to think that, but I am starting to reconsider. I was an economics major in university, and have done a lot of research regarding the economic returns on these kinds of public investments. In short, the returns that we get from this type of thing are usually much higher than the initial cost. This is both from a societal standpoint, and from a government revenue standpoint. The future of our country and our species lies in our brains. Funding for research and education is worth it. I'm very Libertarian about a lot of things. Education and sciences are not one of those things.