Politics Corrupting Science

Are economists partly to blame for the current crisis? Has their overconfidence led us astray, as claimed by the Coffeehouse this morning?

IMHO this is just another feature of having a too big and overbearing government. It is not that scientists have corrupted us and made us spend too much money; it is that government has paid them to come up with the research that supports government's own prejudices and has increasingly squeezed out genuinely independent research.

This is most visible in the 'science' of climate change but it also applies to virtually every area of research, including economics.

The solution is not to product more rules on government grants, as socialists would prefer, but to abolish the funding altogether. Would the country really notice if all government research into economics was suddenly stopped? Sure, the academics and their grant maintained supporters would wail – loudly – but would we really be any poorer? I doubt it.

The same principle could be applied across universities and other government funded bodies, such as the opera. Don't assume I'm a heathen for saying this. In the short term we would lose many familiar establishments. Before too long, however, private individuals would step into the breach and they would create much more vibrant institutions which would not only cost the taxpayer nothing, they would be of much more benefit to humanity.