[jason0597]

I do not know how to objectively measure useful research funding. However, this discussion reminded me of a graph I saw on the wtfhappenedin1971.com site [1]. It's not direct measurement of R&D development, but it sure as hell doesn't paint a good picture for all the spending that's going on. I wouldn't be surprised if a similar allocation of funds was happening in medical R&D as well.

[1] https://wtfhappenedin1971home.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/ey...

[bumby]

Yes, I'm familiar with that graph. There's a similar one for college tuition in the U.S.; interesting that both are industries where costs have been growing at more than GDP year over year.

However, the point between comparing countries still holds. If you use older data, you'll see that the U.S. had even more disproportionate R&D funding