Without science, humankind is doomed to stagnation. That explains the heavy emphasis that the government has had on carrying out scientific research. Today’s world, however, is seeing a shift into heavier involvement of private companies and individuals in that aspect. I am of the opinion that the predicament of the trend is to be eclipsed by the major rewards reaped for the science community and for the public.
Privatizing science is likely to pose only one setback and it is on the scientific landscape. No significant breakthroughs are on the horizon, at least those that parallel to past advancements, such as the discovery of relativity. Instead, privately funded projects are likely to focus into research that helps organisations to make sales, but are trivial to our knowledge, such as only to prove that certain content in their food products does no harm to consumers.
Nevertheless, allowing scientific research to be the domain of private organisations can pave the way for more advantages, one of which lies in the greater diversity. Private foundations are those which come from different disciplines with different interests and thus, fund projects that tend to be risky and less-appealing to the politicians. Exemplary of this is the major interest of the government in funding drug trials but for the former, the scope could range from space exploration to addressing climate change.
Another dividend that helps put the shortcoming into shade is the creation of jobs and innovations. While the current generation can immediately enjoy a larger pool of jobs, either as researchers, as participants or as engineers who develop the products based on the findings, the next generations will benefit even more immensely because what they can reap is the ready-to-use innovations, just like how we are enjoying GPS or MRI scanner in this day and age.
In conclusion, the funding ecosystem should be dominated by the private party, as I believe it presents a blessing at large.