A Stitch in Haste

"Since man's basic tool of survival is his mind, the most important human activity is the discovery of knowledge (i.e., the occupation of scientist)."
--Ayn Rand

There's a classic episode of "ER" where Benton and Romano are interviewing medical school applicants, with a rapid-fire succession of each one saying, "I want to help people..." "I want to help people..." "I want to help people..." -- only to meet empty stares of cynical apathy from the two surgeons.

In a similar vein, scientists (and academics generally) are often presumed to be motivated only by social concerns -- "to make the world a better place," "to improve the human condition" or some such gobbledygook. (As if Microsoft and Wal-Mart haven't made the world a better place.) Researchers and scholars are obviously smart, and if they wanted to, they could certainly work in the private sector and become rich.

So we can all agree, can't we, that scientists are never concerned with such petty trivialities as money...

...can't we?

Last week the [National Institutes of Health] announced drastic new rules restricting employees, and their spouses and dependents, from stock holdings in drug, biotech and other companies with significant medical divisions. Consulting, lecturing and other outside income is also severely restricted. Even most prizes and awards with money are now forbidden (the Nobel is an exception). NIH employees are furious.

Word on the street is that universities...are receiving a flood of applications from talented scientists. (Perhaps the NIH should have consulted with some economists who might have explained the concepts of opportunity costs and compensating differentials).

And if the universities can't absorb all the excess supply, expect the private sector to.

Not everything that puts a dollar in your pocket is a sin. For politicians and bureaucrats to suffocate scholars with oppressive ethics rules is about as pot-kettle-black as you can get.

Hat tip to Marginal Revolution.

(NOT-SO-)FUN FACT: The post mentions that the Nobel Prize is exempt from the new NIH rules. It is not exempt, however, from being subject to federal income tax. The IRS makes no distinction between academic "prizes" and lottery "prizes" -- except that the IRS is gracious enough to allow Nobel winners to pre-emptively donate the money to charity and thereby have it excluded from their gross income a priori. Lottery winners, or Oprah-car-recipients, can't even do that. Be careful what you wish for -- you might win it.