Re: modern science = underfunded projects



On Sun, 26 Feb 2006, BMJ wrote:

Old Pif wrote:
Straydog wrote:

The '50s-'60s were a golden age of rapid and extensive expansion of
colleges and universities in the USA and thus Phd production could not
keep up with the real demand for faculty. As the granting agencies
continued to expand their budgets, the health science centers expanded
like crazy over the easy money all in the '70s-'80s, All during this 2-3
decade period, the campuses got the bright idea to "soak" the govt for
expanded _overhead_ charges and so overheads went from 10-20% on up to
100-130^ of direct costs (a big windfall for the campuses), and after
that, chairs started to move overhead costs to direct costs, thus
effectively increasing the "dean's tax" (more windfall for the
administrators), and so, today, more than half of the grant money flowing
is basically "scammed" money. then you throw in the bloated salaries of
all the NIH grants administrators, managers, and other fluffy-cushy types,
and we have our own built-in administrators imperialism where virtually
all of the risk is on the backs of the underlings who sweat at night
worrying about their grants, tenure, backstabbers and the administrators who
sit back and smoke cigars.



That is why R&D is so bloody expensive in this country. But I don't
think outsourcing will change anything in the long run if they don't
change the way they do it. Lion share of money for outsourcing goes to
all kind of middlemen. Scientists and engineers in India will be
getting peanuts. It is for sure. But it is not gonna cost less at this
end if they continue to feed all this bureaucratic pyramid.


I've worked for one R & D company where the upper management was not only clueless, but also overpaid for what it did to earn its keep. I also worked for R & D companies where one's pay depended upon who one knew. In all cases, they couldn't keep project costs under control, in part to what I just described. In addition, all of them were close to going belly up.


Probably the worst thing going on in the USA, now, (besides our idiot president), is this vast sea change in attitude among our executives. It is a shift from "doing good business" to "rip off, cheat, steal, trick, etc." any way you can. The proof is in books like Michael Lewis' "The Money Culture" and "Barbarians at the Gate". And, US CEOs make so very very much more than rank and file than CEOs anywhere else in the world (this is also regularly covered in the WSJ, so I'm not making it up).
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: modern science = underfunded projects
    ... that, chairs started to move overhead costs to direct costs, thus ... administrators), and so, today, more than half of the grant money flowing ... all the NIH grants administrators, managers, and other fluffy-cushy types, ... worrying about their grants, tenure, backstabbers and the administrators who ...
    (sci.research.careers)
  • Re: modern science = underfunded projects
    ... that, chairs started to move overhead costs to direct costs, thus ... administrators), and so, today, more than half of the grant money flowing ... all the NIH grants administrators, managers, and other fluffy-cushy types, ... worrying about their grants, tenure, backstabbers and the administrators who ...
    (sci.research.careers)
  • Re: modern science = underfunded projects
    ... that, chairs started to move overhead costs to direct costs, thus ... administrators), and so, today, more than half of the grant money flowing ... all the NIH grants administrators, managers, and other fluffy-cushy types, ... worrying about their grants, tenure, backstabbers and the administrators who ...
    (sci.research.careers)
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    ... The student said it would take too much time from ... He does not care about money. ... then you throw in the bloated salaries of all the NIH grants administrtors, managers, and other fluffy-cushy types, and we have our own built-in administrators imperialism where virtually all of the risk is on the backs of the underlings who sweat at night worrying about their grants, tenure, backstabbs and the adminstrators who sit back and smoke cigars. ...
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