By way of a post about the popularity of healthcare, I came across some polling results from a survey that asked people whether funding for various things should increase, decrease, or stay the same. The results:
I suppose the good news is science funding is middle of the pack. And I suppose the bad news is science funding is middle of the pack. Of course, this has to be taken with a boulder of salt, since it's not clear that respondents have any idea how much is really spent--that is, respondents could be basing their answers on complete false notions of spending levels (people always think we spend 10-100 times more on foreign aid than we actually do).
So, are these data discouraging or encouraging? (And if that's not a Rorschach Blot, I don't know what is...).
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I thought it interesting that, overall, people didn't want to reduce spending on anything. Only one item, poor people in other countries, even had a plurality in favor of reducing spending (34 to 33 reducing vs keeping it the same).
That's great and all, but probably explains some of our budget issues :p
But look at it this way: since 40% say "keep it the same" then 79% are actually "on our side" with only 14% calling for a decrease. I always have a hard time understanding "unsure" selections in surveys like this.
A number of years back, I saw a poll where people were asked how they would divide up the budget pie for Defense, Education, Research, Social Welfare, etc. I think the categories were fewer in number and slightly more broad than the above. I remember that both education and research both wound up with a MUCH bigger part of the pie than they really get. The only area that got a lot less was defense/military spending. Apparently even many hawks didn't realize how much of the budget goes there.