Ironically, posted on a thread about CERN (birthplace of the World Wide Web, html, and http) on an internet forum. ;^)
I agree that a large chunk of government research dollars flows into pork projects and / or junk science. Where we apparantly disagree is in the funding for basic research.
As far as distorting the market place goes, here are some excerpts from the National Science and Engineering Indicators (2002):
Private industry, which provided 68 percent of total R&D funding in 2000, pays for most of the nation’s R&D. Private industry itself used nearly all (98 percent) of these funds in performing its own R&D; most (71 percent) of the funds were used to develop products and services rather than to conduct research.Looks like the marketplace is doing just fine. Private funding for R&D is booming.In 1980, Federal R&D support accounted for 47 percent of the nation’s total R&D effort. By 2000, Federal sources accounted for considerably less (26 percent) of the U.S. R&D total.
Industry performed the largest share of the nation’s R&D—75 percent. Universities and colleges performed 11 percent, and the Federal Government performed 7 percent. Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), which are administered by various industrial, academic, and nonprofit institutions, accounted for an additional 4 percent, and other nonprofit organizations accounted for 3 percent.
I guess it depends on how you define this. I consider giant supercolliders to be pork with no practical payoff for anyone except those whose livelihoods are provided by hte pork and payofff to the politicians who are using the pork money to buy votes. You might consider this to be basic research.