Science funding has devolved back to Feudal times, where an aspiring scientist must gain the favour of wealthy barons to support his research. Because of course by capitalist reasoning, science as a pursuit has no immediate returns on investment, thereby being a frivolous waste of time.

Honestly, I don't know if this insanity will ever stop in our lifetimes. Profiteering has now become the number one profession of the developed world, and anything that does not generate short term profit is seen as wasteful. I increasingly fantasize about the days of the Manhattan and Apollo projects, where the state treated science as critical to its survival.

Let's look at ourselves: how many brilliant people are now scrambling to make web/social/mobile apps in hopes of getting acquired or hitting their IPO? Is this what these people would do if left to their own devices? Or would they become fascinated with the eternal undertaking of science, and make breakthroughs in fields which would change the way we understand the world?

All the brilliant people I know have admitted defeat, along the lines of "If you can't beatem, joinem." The only way they see research in their future is if they can become the next Bill Gates or Zuck, and have billions to spend at their discretion.

This is an extremely sad development. An entire generation of aspiring scientists (myself included) are shut out of the system, while parasites such as administrators and rent seekers suck the last bits of life from the dying government funding apparatus that they have successfully gamed.

Science is the eternal pursuit of truth. It is the very thing which distinguishes us as a species. The quest to understand ourselves and the universe is a fundamental drive of every human being which should be nurtured from birth. Increasingly, however, scientific pursuit is relegated to the sidelines in the quest for pure capitalism. A society focused upon profiteering can only have one end: fiscal and moral bankruptcy.