Thank you. I am tired of hearing Obama and every other politician talk about how we need more scientists. We need less. Researchers are dying on the vine. There is not enough funding, and all across the country, labs are closing. For example, when I started grad school 10 years ago, approximately 20% of grants submitted to the National Cancer Institute could hope to be funded. Now it is about 5%. That 5% is not going to young researchers. It is being divided up among established labs just to keep them open. Politics dominates the funding process. If you want more scientists, you fund science. If not, you don't.
Exactly. To me, it is really a travesty that the profession and the way of knowing that has created the modern world is not adequately funded. In fact, it goes beyond that. I think scientists and academics in general are made to feel guilty for expecting to make a decent living. Based on the level of education, the contributions to society, and the time/energy that is spent specializing in a particular sub-field, salaries should at least be doubled.