New Chemical Research and its Costs to Society

The Department of Defense (DOD) reports that the United States spent about $168 billion (worth around

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is perhaps the most well known space agency in the world. Since its formation in 19581, it has pioneered in space science, yet is also renowned for its large budget. NASA has the highest budget of any space agency, $18.6 billion2 in 2015, the equivalent of every American paying $54 towards the agency3, meaning 0.14% of total GDP is spent on NASA3 . This money is spent on the ISS, sending astronauts, probes and satellites into space, astrophysics and planetary science research, maintaining and developing NASA’s space telescopes (the Wide Field Infrared Survey telescope searching for dark energy and exoplanets, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope) and developing spacecraft2. Space exploration is an incredibly expensive process with one shuttle launch costing $450 million4 however NASA’s colossal budget benefits the USA greatly; the agency employs 18,000 people5 as astronauts, engineers, scientists and teachers and G. Scott Hubbard, former director of the NASA Ames Research Center estimates that every dollar spent on NASA returns $8 to the economy6.While this figure is an estimate, it demonstrates NASA’s worth and capacity for money making. NASA works on pioneering research and as its patents and licenses return to the US treasury, it

As if the 401.3 billion wasn't astronomical enough there is more money hidden within the budget that will go towards the same purposes, which is pulling those funds from civilians. The total of funds that were found hidden within the budget totaled to an actual figure of about 596.1 billion dollars (Higgs Pg. 3) with a breakdown of it as follows (in billions of dollars):

There are multiple health concerns worldwide and more and more drugs are needed every day. Many drugs however, are extremely expensive to develop, test, and produce. According to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (2002), it costs up to $802 million to bring a new drug to the market. In 2002, pharmaceutical companies spent $34 billion in research and development (Center-Watch, 2003). In addition to the costs, the overall time from the discovery to approve and market the drug can take up to 15 years.

In the 2013 article “Budget Gains For Physical Sciences Will Be Uncertain At Best”, Kramer states: “The President has proposed a combination of tax increases and cuts to entitlement programs to pay for the increased spending. Leadership of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has made clear its opposition to tax increases.” (para. 3).

By using extensive internet based research, I plan to investigate the decrease in NASA’s funding. My primary question is; why is the U.S. government reducing the funds? and why are they saying they can't afford it?. When in reason I think they chose not to. I think NASA should be viewed as an investment, because it does not drain nearly enough money as it contributes. NASA pays for itself, they give us inventions that can apply to our daily lives, and with enough research we may be mining asteroids or pure limitless solar energy in the future, but most of all they give our species itself a way forward.

projected to account for 12.5% ($452 billion) of the total expenditures. For the decade, 2010–2019

One of the largest obstacles hampering research is funding. There is obviously a massive amount of research that must be conducted; the

Technical risk, a large portion of all development costs are spent on drugs that never reach the market.

Moreover, we must make sure the research and development department have enough funds to operate. In order to act as a science resource centre for the government, the R&D department needs to do a lot of researches and these researches require a huge amount of money.

While this appears to be a good datapoint in that it is a direct correlation to “butter” related activities. Training is relative to education and compensation is relative to pay and benefits. A number of questions which arise: If 80% of the military budget is relative to “butter” related activities, and 20% is being spent for direct defense related efforts, then why are these costs included in the defense budget? Would shifting the costs for military training be better suited at the Department of Labor (current budget of $11.8 billion)? Would shifting the costs for compensation related healthcare be better situated at the Department of Health and Human Services (current budget s $77.1 billion) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (current budget s $65.3 billion)?

Drug companies claim most of their profits are reinvested to develop new drugs, yet the industry has refused to show government auditors its books (Clemente, 2004). In addition, pharmaceutical companies do not acknowledge the financial contribution of the government which funds research with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Cancer Institute, and other public agencies. "The Federal Government, mainly through the NIH, funds about 36% of all U.S. medical research. . . Of the 21 most important drugs introduced between 1965 and 1992, 15 were developed using knowledge and techniques from federally funded research" (Barlett & Steele, 2004). Pfizer 's profits of $9.1 billion for 2002 were 28 percent, twice which of General Electric, nine times more than Wal-Mart and 31 times more than General Motors (Barlett & Steele, 2004). "Drugmakers ' net profit margins averaged 19 percent last year vs. 7.5 percent for all the companies in the S&P 500. The seven largest U.S. drugmakers made $31.2 billion last year" (Gibbs, 2003). This supports the findings of a recent online survey conducted by Weiss Ratings, Inc.: "forty-two percent of consumers polled blame pharmaceutical companies ' excessive profits for high prescription drug costs" ("Drug," 2004).

The Department of Defense (DOD) was recently approved a budget of $582.7 billion for 2017. $112.1 billion of this budget was specifically to “develop and procure equipment, technology, and capabilities…” [1].

Throughout history chemistry has had a large impact on the field of medicine. Things such as

The proposed budget is £75,000. This will cover costs and overheads associated with the design, implementation and completion of the study. Overheads will include the employment of 1 research assistant (£25,000) and the principle researcher wage (£25,000).