More money for medical research

"Money won't buy happiness, but it will pay the salaries of a large research staff to study the problem” Bill Vaughn


WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has announced $5 billion in government grant money to help pay for research into cures for cancer and other diseases.

I have written before about the federal money spent on medical research and how it would be more effective if a prize for a cure was offered instead.

Now President Obama will ask for another $5 billion of government money be spent on medical research. This after more than $30 billion has been spent on research for a cancer cure.

Do you believe republican researchers will get as much money for research as will democrat researchers? Don't!

The Orteig Prize offered $25 thousand in 1919 for anyone to fly across the Atlantic non stop. Charles Lindbergh won that prize in 1927. How long do you think it would have taken someone if the government spent money on research to find out how to accomplish the mission, and how much money would have been spent on the research?

John Harrison (24 March 1693 – 24 March 1776) was a self-educated English clockmaker. He invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought and critically-needed key piece in solving the problem of accurately establishing the East-West position, or longitude, of a ship at sea, thus revolutionising and extending the possibility of safe long distance sea travel in the Age of Sail. The problem was considered so intractable that the British Parliament offered a prize of £20,000 (comparable to £2.77 million / €3.52 million / $4.56 million in modern currency) for the solution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison

The Harrison prize encouraged innovation to find a way to keep time at sea and measure longitude. This helped seafarers keep better track of their positions and avoid running aground. Think how long it would have taken to find a mariner clock if the government had funded research. And how much would it have cost the British government in research funds?

Researchers survive by doing research. If a cure is found there will be no need for research. It makes sense that the researchers are not in a hurry to find something that will put them out of business.

Humans all look out for their self interests first.

Charles Tolleson