I think government should be making expenditures where they'll create the best long-run return, and I think some of those are in public research.
The research done by Julian Alston and others shows positive returns annually of 20% or more—often way more. Those are where the expenditures should be made. The problem is that research takes a long time, and governments, unfortunately, are elected based on immediate returns and short-run initiatives. It's really difficult to decide to say, “Hey, we're going to make those long-run investments.”