> In normal times people just want research that has life enhancing practical outputs
what about people who study birds, or say, olms? people want that kind of research? the people who are doing it surely do. astronomy and eg star watching in deep space? i could go on for days
people like doing mathematics, similarly to studying endemic organisms or other stuff of no direct utilitarian value
how many parents are happy to pay the fraction of taxes that go into something that their children might want to choose as a calling and fall in love with?
it’s okay to discuss whether something should be publicly funded, using “people want x kind of research” as a supposedly obvious or common sense argument is fallacious in the sense that it implies an idealised steelman model of the general public. that model is divorced from reality