 Glenn Beck is seen here on the Insider Webcam, an exclusive feature available only to Glenn Beck Insiders. Learn more... |
GLENN: That's right, today Barack Obama ready to put science back into her rightful place and how is he going to do that? Spending money, of course. I mean, that's the way you do it. You spend money. I think a lot of conservatives are okay with government spending some of the money on scientific research, but putting science back in her rightful place is apparently very, very expensive. Obama is proposing record outlays for scientific research. Makes you feel so warm and cuddly inside. We're setting a record. Some of the hate mongers say that it's not really worth it. Some of the flat earthers say that the cash we dump into research winds up sometimes being overkill. Some of those scientific deniers like Barack Obama's own economic advisor Austin Goolsbee. Wait a minute, what? Let's look at the summary of an economic paper he wrote. Quote: Conventional wisdom holds that the social rate of return to research and development significantly exceeds the private rate of return and therefore R&D should be subsidized. In the U.S. the government has directly funded a large fraction of the total R&D spending. This paper shows that there is a serious problem with such government efforts to increase inventive activity. Isn't that weird? Government cash isn't the only solution. But where, oh where does that extra cash go? Let's ask Barack Obama's own economic advisor. Quote: The majority of R&D spending is actually just salary payments for R&D workers. Their labor supply, however, is quite inelastic. So when the government funds R&D, a significant fraction of the increased spending goes directly into higher wages. Oh, let me see if I get this straight. Obama ups the spending which winds up going directly to the bottom line of the scientists who sit there and tell us about all the crises that we must spend more money on according to Barack Obama's own economic advisor. But those are just words. We need scientific numbers to show that this is truth. Let's put science in her rightful place. Let me quote Barack Obama's own economic advisor, Austin Goolsbee, one more time. Quote: Because of the higher wages, conventional estimates of the effectiveness of R&D policy may be 30 to 50% too high. Oh. 30 to 50% more, that's it? I mean, that's actually one of the most efficient government programs I think I've ever heard of.
VOICE: You've been listening to Spotlight on Science, exclusively heard on the Glenn Beck program, America's number one source for science and science related items.