Comments on: Good science is key to healthcare reform

By: TR

TR — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:08:12 +0000

#6. As the lady from Alaska would say, You betcha!”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:16:14 +0000

I’m fine with government spending on basic science. Very fine with it. But don’t ask me to horsetrade it for some stupid bridge in your home town. That reeks.

As to which system… Switzerland comes to mind. We had a decent system until we trashed it with the 16th amendment.

By: Carl Nelson

Carl Nelson — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:06:39 +0000

When it comes to basic science, government isn’t in the way; government is the way. Massive government amounts are already being spent on basic health and other science. Private investment in science is small by comparison (no, I don’t know the exact numbers, but I’ll bet NAS has them) because the economic returns are too uncertain. Basic research is faith that if you poke around in the unknown, you will find some very useful knowledge. Big pharma spends a lot on pharma development but not on the basic knowledge of how nature works. Would you hire a PhD mathematician to study information theory?

BTW: if our system isn’t the best, which other system do you nominate as the best? And can you name a period in American history where government got less corrupt? The nature of our expanding industrial and knowledge society simply presents ever increasing opportunities for illicit profit.

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:05:06 +0000

You know my views on this. The feds can spend on CLEARLY common good things that states probably can’t do themselves. Education can be done on a state or city basis. Science, which benefits all, should be done by private concerns, with federal funding only in cases where the individual benefit isn’t great but the common benefit is.

You know this, yet you persist in blathering on about I’m just a guy with ideas, and I need to make deals.

NO NO NO. That is the stupidity that brought us to ruin. “deals” with Ted Kennedy. Deals with the devil never work out – and we’ve done plenty.

The time to “deal” is over. That time to restore fundamental values is now.

Your generation had your shot to “deal” and you just dealt yourself goodies from the future. No thanks.

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:45:14 +0000

Not just another guy… I’m saying don’t waste money on something that won’t help. Either help science or get the hell out of the way.

Our system is not the best system – it used to be but is now as corrupt and getting worse.

Deals on fundamentals are stupid.

By: Carl Nelson

Carl Nelson — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:45:46 +0000

Oh, I’m glad you’re being constructive, but politically you are just another guy with a good idea for government to pay for. All those Education programs were also good ideas, just proposed by someone else with a different concept of value. The whole deficit problem is more good ideas than the nation, including you, is willing to pay for. Before you can get your good new idea adopted, you have to negotiate a settlement with the competing ideas and the level of government finance. Shouting a good idea is nice; getting it adopted in a way that helps the larger problem is even better. There’s where more good and workable ideas are needed. Propose a constructive deal because our world’s best political system lives by deals. Be a Hamilton proposing a deal that solves the nation’s financial structure problem by moving the nation’s capital.

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:53:16 +0000

Sigh. Try and be constructive.

Hmmm let see.. cut the Dept of Education budget entirely. Spend 1/2 on science.

There. Easy.

By: Carl Nelson

Carl Nelson — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:08:21 +0000

Is that a call for more deficit-financed federal spending, or do you have a waste-fraud-abuse source for the money, noting that WFA is usually anything benefitting someone else’s objectives.