Many people believe that scientific research should be carried out and controlled by the governments rather than private companies. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?
ESSAY #432 FROM OUR BOOK
Scientific research is very important for the economic and social development of any country. While I agree that some critical areas of research like health and defence should be only in the hands of the government, in all other areas private companies should be handed over the research.
There are many reasons why research into critical areas should be publicly funded. To begin with, private companies are profit-oriented. In other words, they invest in research with the main aim of making money on their investment even if it goes against the general public interest. To cite an example, many drug manufacturers have been caught creating artificial medicine shortages even at the cost of public health to earn a premium.
Furthermore, there are some other areas, which are better left off in the hands of the government like defense, atomic energy etcetera because these areas are pivotal to a country’s security. Research only in the hands of private organizations could be detrimental for the country. Private companies tend to neglect certain areas, which are not so lucrative. A case in point being Ebola vaccination. As Ebola is third world disease with people lacking the financial capacity to pay huge prices, research on it was neglected for a very long time. Compare this with potentially less threatening, developed world diseases like diabetes and obesity, where considerable amount of money has been spent.
I believe that to expect government to be solely responsible for research would be wrong too. To begin with, private companies do researches more efficiently because they are profit driven. Every dollar is spent wisely to ensure maximum benefits and every resource is used effectively to avoid waste. Also, government has so many priorities like healthcare, education and so on. Thus, it is financially constrained. Barring private companies from research would slow down innovation and ultimately progress. Governments can invest more in critical and neglected areas and also subsidize the final products like medicines even if private companies do the research. India has recently done so for stents bringing down their cost considerably.
To conclude, governments and private companies should be active in scientific research. However, some critical areas should only be reserved for the government.
