US federal budgeting this year have pushed hard to gut science. I've heard talking points regurgitated by college educated folks that businesses will pay for it instead, but when pressed for examples or how it would work they are only able to point to engineering projects, they can't differentiate between basic scientific research producing testable, accurate models and the products and services built using this models.

[–] DrPop@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Businesses will pay for studies that help businesses or had a profit incentive. When you hear the govt spent a large sum of money studying how ocelots react to opium or somelike that, people usually say that's a waste of money, rather than finding out why.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 2 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Like there was one Republican complaint about studying soybeans. Beans! Useless!

Yeah well guess what one of the biggest crops in the US is. We used to export soy to Asia.

https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/23114-opinion-the-trump-administration-is-wrong-about-the-value-of-crop-research-labs-and-farmers-know-it