zlacker

>>karako+(OP)
How should one orient themselves and their career if they wanted to work to increase funding to scientific development? Outside the obvious "make a boatload of money doing something obscenely profitable and distribute the money yourself"

Editing to clarify: this is not a hypothetical. This is something that I've been trying to do previously and am interested in doing a better job at in the future.

>>ghjv+c9
Why is "make a boatload of money doing something obscenely profitable and distribute the money yourself" off the table?

Companies and wealthy individuals can and do fund research, maybe not as much as in the past but why not encourage it?

>>SoftTa+rd
Companies and wealthy individuals don't fund the same research as the government.

The government funds research that other scientists think is important. That's long term, often not flashy, meat and potatoes kind of stuff.

Companies tend to have very short time horizons. And wealthy individuals want splashy things. None of these are an option if the federal government is going away.