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by pvaldes 1423 days ago
> Scientists these days are just interested in grants.

Ladies and gentlemen, to add insult to injury, the greedy scientist myth strikes again.

There is not a better feeling in the world than to work for free for several years, six days a week (plus Sundays of course), with the weak promise of receiving a "turtle grant" someday. Maybe. (Tomorrow perhaps, the turtle is blocked somewhere. You will be paid in two years) and then being called "greedy".

Yes, there are people getting rich with the money for science, It just happens that they aren't the scientists. They are the politicians that keep the grants as their own personal loans. Science can't be fixed because is the guarantor of politicians that only need to go creative and put impossible requirements year after year to be allowed to keep most of the money for themselves.

In 2010 under the president Zapatero, the spanish government de-funded first and then keep for themselves the 25% of the money compromised for science. In 2015 under president Rajoy the government keep the 48% of the funds allocated for science and in 2016 the 62% of the promised money never reached any researcher. The money was used instead for, who knows... a new swimming pool for each minister maybe, or fixing accounting holes in other sectors... I wouldn't discard cocaine parties neither.

https://elpais.com/diario/2011/04/02/sociedad/1301695203_850...

https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/10/04/ciencia/1507133529_8680...

1 comments

Oh, I absolutely think we see things the same way. It's not greedy, they just need to pay the bills and well... Truth might suffer in that environment