We wonder how cronyism and government largess might affect science research?
How could we be so naive?
Stossel has been on the case for years.
His past work has exposed a corrupt underbelly that develops when so much money is available to create influence.
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2014/02/12/the-privileged-people-n1793341/print
Stossel’s right, but at this point traditional pork may be the least of our worries.
Stossel should have a lot of fun over the proposed cable merger.
The schmoozing and political payoffs involved in that one would never pass the smell test if Bush was in office.
“Big Science” has always been a political playpen. NASA’s project to put a human on the moon created big NASA operations in a half-dozen states with expensive payrolls and facilities in “key” legislator’s districts. What a surprise. The same situation keeps various military programs moving forward, even when the military asks that some programs be ended. The “green” (which describes watermelons — green on the outside, red on the inside) memes have allowed a different bunch of politicians and crony capitalists (actually, this is Fascism, but that’s a forbidden word) to participate in rent seeking and profit at taxpayer’s expense.
Stossel’s article is right on point.
And there are few places where government cronyism has caused more havoc than with “green” companies and “non-profit” organizations fighting global warming.