Yay, politicians interfering in scientific funding is a thing again..

[regexcellent]

I'm being a little harsh by comparing psychology to sociology, which is irredeemably worthless.

[C0ckney]

Someone needs to conduct a study to determine why conservatives are so biased against psychology.

and a companion study of the sociological aspects of this phenomenon.

it's time to apply for a fulbright grant...

[DinoDoc]

The big winners in this equation are the Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering and the Directorate for Engineering. The loser is the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate, which is poised to get a 22 percent budget cut from fiscal year 2014 levels.

What's wrong with this?

[DinoDoc]

Also if you dislike the possibility of politicians acting politically with money, don't ask them for any.

[Sava]

but Republicans are nothing if not consistent about trying to **** things up.

That is their mission in life... to ruin modern society.

[kentonio]

What's wrong with this?

Because engineering might get you a great new bridge or building material but social sciences could potentially tell you why it's a really stupid ****ing idea to lock up millions of people for non-violent drug offenses and maybe provide new ways to manage major issues in society?

[kentonio]

Also if you dislike the possibility of politicians acting politically with money, don't ask them for any.

So the governments money belongs to the politicians instead of the people now? Interesting new change in your philosophy there.

[Felch]

Social sciences tend to be a lot cheaper though. If the government is going to dump billions of dollars on some sort of research, I want it to involve orbital death rays and lasers and wormholes that connect us to nightmare dimensions full of unspeakable horrors. You know, worthwhile stuff STEM stuff.

[Sava]

Nice to know there is room for insane amounts of wasteful defense spending in your ideology.

[onodera]

I'm being a little harsh by comparing psychology to sociology, which is irredeemably worthless.

There was a country full of STEM majors once. They all got easily convinced that to reform their economy it was necessary to sell nationalized enterprises to random people.

[Imran Siddiqui]

So the governments money belongs to the politicians instead of the people now? Interesting new change in your philosophy there.

Uh....

Isn't the whole point of a representative democracy to give the people's representatives the authority to speak for the people? This whole thread is silly!

[AAAAAAAAH!]

There was a country full of STEM majors once. They all got easily convinced that to reform their economy it was necessary to sell nationalized enterprises to random people.

economists PWNED those stupid STEM majors

[Patroklos]

Nice to know there is room for insane amounts of wasteful defense spending in your ideology.

It's ironic to you bring that up because the logic so far used to justify removing political oversight from scientific spending applies to military spending as well. All spending actually.

[kentonio]

Uh....

Isn't the whole point of a representative democracy to give the people's representatives the authority to speak for the people? This whole thread is silly!

So would you be equally happy with politicians being able to come into the emergency room and decide which treatments Medicare patients should be given for instance? After all, it's the public's money.

[kentonio]

It's ironic to you bring that up because the logic so far used to justify removing political oversight from scientific spending applies to military spending as well. All spending actually.

Why would that be bad? The military frequently say they don't want to excessive amounts of tanks and overpriced planes that politicians keep dumping on them to provide their districts with economic benefits. What is actually bad about just giving the Secretary of Defense a budget each year, and letting him get on with it?