#### Welfare for Scientists.

There is a common assertion:

*"We need government to fund scientific research because private research doesn't happen unless there is an incentive."*

Supposedly, this is justification for public research, funded by taxation.  Of course, this assumes that public research is warranted.  What about situations where common knowledge precludes research?

Here's an example, [skip to `7:15`](https://youtu.be/p5RWzBRg6rU?t=7m15s):

https://youtu.be/p5RWzBRg6rU?t=7m15s

Private research eventually lead to the correct model only when it was economical to research it.  Proponents of public research cannot justify the research because they could not imagine a scenario that warranted it.  They would have to research for research sake, which is wasteful.

In the above example, it was commonly understood that language tone followed a certain pattern.  It was intuitive that this was the case.  But when actual data was gathered, it turned out to follow a different pattern.  This wasn't discovered until there was incentive to do the research to collect the data.  Prior to that, the incorrect pattern was good enough to describe a model that held up.  The model was wrong, but it was useful to describe reality well enough.

Research for research sake isn't evil.  But when funds are obtained using threats of violence, it crosses the line.