Should Weath Be Redistributed?

[Deleted]

Because stock market, investing and other sort of finance is beneficial for the survival of Human Species, oh wait its not.

Science/Technology > Rest

Finance is vital for progress in Science/Technology. We have limited resources and we want to make sure they're allocated to the right projects.

[Skroe]

Finance is vital for progress in Science/Technology. We have limited resources and we want to make sure they're allocated to the right projects.

I'm sorry, but this is dead wrong.

Best example, the Super Conducting Supercollider. Canceled in 1993 because Congress and the Clinton Administration had to choose between it and Space Station Freedom (which survived by 1 vote, to become the International Space Station, which is just Space Station Freedom + a modest Russian segement). The SSC was so big, so powerful, that the Large Hadron Collider at CERN probably would not have been built. Operating at a start of 20 TeV compared to the LHC 4 (and by 2014 7 TeV), the SSC was to be the twenty year tool of particle physics. That future, because of finance, has been delayed indefently. We now may have a 20 TeV particle accelerator in the 2030s.

But there's a collateral cost. Without the SSC, all Particle Physcists in the US had as at ool was the 1 TeV Tevatron, which shut down in November because the LHC made it superfluous. The result? Particle Physics, the quintessential American Science since the exodus of European phyicists in the 1930s and 1940s, moved back to Europe. Not much goes on here any more, because Finance theories and "allocating the right projects" didnt want to pay for it. And at what cost? A mere $2 billion in overruns. This when a fleet of 20 Presidential Helicopters (that Obama wisely canceled) were budgeted as a $20 billion project

I'm a scientist (computer science). But let me put this plainly: I look at people with finance backgrounds as basically a lower form of life. They aren't smart enough, creative enough, or talented enough to realize important things infront of them. All that matters is balancing a spreadsheet. And I'm sorry, but a computer can do that.

[Laize]

I'm sorry, but this is dead wrong.

Best example, the Super Conducting Supercollider. Canceled in 1993 because Congress and the Clinton Administration had to choose between it and Space Station Freedom (which survived by 1 vote, to become the International Space Station, which is just Space Station Freedom + a modest Russian segement). The SSC was so big, so powerful, that the Large Hadron Collider at CERN probably would not have been built. Operating at a start of 20 TeV compared to the LHC 4 (and by 2014 7 TeV), the SSC was to be the twenty year tool of particle physics. That future, because of finance, has been delayed indefently. We now may have a 20 TeV particle accelerator in the 2030s.

But there's a collateral cost. Without the SSC, all Particle Physcists in the US had as at ool was the 1 TeV Tevatron, which shut down in November because the LHC made it superfluous. The result? Particle Physics, the quintessential American Science since the exodus of European phyicists in the 1930s and 1940s, moved back to Europe. Not much goes on here any more, because Finance theories and "allocating the right projects" didnt want to pay for it. And at what cost? A mere $2 billion in overruns. This when a fleet of 20 Presidential Helicopters (that Obama wisely canceled) were budgeted as a $20 billion project

I'm a scientist (computer science). But let me put this plainly: I look at people with finance backgrounds as basically a lower form of life. They aren't smart enough, creative enough, or talented enough to realize important things infront of them. All that matters is balancing a spreadsheet. And I'm sorry, but a computer can do that.

You are dependent on businesses for your modern life. If there were no people with finance backgrounds you'd be plowing a fucking field of wheat in your pre-industrial-revolution modern life.

[Deleted]

I'm sorry, but this is dead wrong.

Best example, the Super Conducting Supercollider. Canceled in 1993 because Congress and the Clinton Administration had to choose between it and Space Station Freedom (which survived by 1 vote, to become the International Space Station, which is just Space Station Freedom + a modest Russian segement). The SSC was so big, so powerful, that the Large Hadron Collider at CERN probably would not have been built. Operating at a start of 20 TeV compared to the LHC 4 (and by 2014 7 TeV), the SSC was to be the twenty year tool of particle physics. That future, because of finance, has been delayed indefently. We now may have a 20 TeV particle accelerator in the 2030s.

But there's a collateral cost. Without the SSC, all Particle Physcists in the US had as at ool was the 1 TeV Tevatron, which shut down in November because the LHC made it superfluous. The result? Particle Physics, the quintessential American Science since the exodus of European phyicists in the 1930s and 1940s, moved back to Europe. Not much goes on here any more, because Finance theories and "allocating the right projects" didnt want to pay for it. And at what cost? A mere $2 billion in overruns. This when a fleet of 20 Presidential Helicopters (that Obama wisely canceled) were budgeted as a $20 billion project

Ummm, why would you use as example something where the government made a decision that was, in your opinion, bad? Government is notorious for being pretty shitty at finance. They do not follow profit, they follow politics.

I'm a scientist (computer science). But let me put this plainly: I look at people with finance backgrounds as basically a lower form of life. They aren't smart enough, creative enough, or talented enough to realize important things infront of them. All that matters is balancing a spreadsheet. And I'm sorry, but a computer can do that.

Unfortunately a computer cannot allocate resources in a complex economic system. If it could, no one would bother hiring people to do finance, it'd be more profitable to let the computer do it without all the human error and emotion.

As a scientist you should probably gather some information about what finance is (it's not all Wall Street "masters of the universe" types), before coming to a conclusion. Without finance your life would be incredibly shit.