Question

What percentage of our budget do you think goes to funding scientific research? (in all disciplines and what fraction of that goes to astronomy specifically) and What percentage our budget do you think should be allocated to funding scientific research? Is doing research in disciplines such as astronomy totally useless except for satisfying our curiosity?

Answer 1

Scientific research = SR

Astronomical research = AR

In actual:

Suppose, only 10% of our budget goes to SR; and out of which only 2% goes to AR.

Should be:

It should be atleast 25% of our budget to be allocated to SR; and out of which atleast 15% should be allocated to AR.

Useless or not:

It depends on Opportunity Cost (OC) of research work. OC is the best benefit foregone if the act is not chosen, instead an alternative is chosen.

Suppose monthly salary is considered to be a benefit in workings. There are two types of works – non-research work, and research work.

These works are to be done in future once the required education or research is over.

Table Disciplines Non-research work Salary OC 10,000 15,000/10,000 = 1.5 Research work Salary OC 15,000 10,000/15,000 = 0.67 The lower OC should be chosen for selection. Since the OC of research work (0.67) is smaller than the OC of non-research work (1.5), the research work (either SR or AR) should be chosen by aspirants. This is the way of increasing salary. If there is no benefit in research work (suppose salary can't be increased), it becomes a curiosity of doing research then and the actual spending and budget for doing research would be and should be very low. The act of research becomes mere a curiosity.