[ted_dunning]

The NIH budget per capita was about $139, the NSF budget per capita was about $30. Total US government research budget is about $500/capita and private R&D comes to about four times that.

You are talking about $2/capita for this Norwegian contribution. Also, this has to be set against the fact that Norwegian government has cut research funding recently in real terms.

The US idiocy is massively stupid on a strategic level, but it is also simply massive. That makes it hard for the rest of the world to compensate.

[ted_dunning]

Of course, to put all of this into context, the US spends about twice on the NFL (professional football) and the NBA (professional basketball) what it spends on the NSF.

(well, spent historically. we'll see how silly that gets in the future)