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Issue31
Money spent on research is almost always a good investment, even when the results of that research are controversial
The speaker is over-generalized and assertive. Whether money spent on research is a good investment or not depends on many factors and the result of the research is an indispensable factor that we should be considered. Besides the main factor, many other factors need to be considered. I disagree that speaker's assertion that any investment on research is always good regardless of any condition.
Admittedly, It is all kinds of research that make science and technology advance significantly and ultimately make society progressive. The nature and goal of the research is to explore and solve problems, which determine that research itself is a good thing and thus provides us more freedom out of problems. For example, the input in research is regarded as an important standard of appraisement and comparison among colleges and the large amount of funds input in research shows the force of college, and thus every college values the research and put much money on it. It shows, from college’s attitude towards research, that money spent on research is usually a good investment. In addition, in the long run, any research, if used correctly, would ultimately benefit to people and make progress to society.
However, although research itself is good, not all money spent on research is always a good investment. After all, the word investment involves the ratio of input and output. Thus, before a research is decided to make, the result of the research must be considered. A research without result or with a vague or bad result would mean return as zero or little, which obviously could not be called a good investment. Considering the importance of the result, we always do feasible report to explicate that the result is explicit and feasible in order to avoid a waste of money before making research. Besides, when the result is bad and do harm to people, investment should not be taken as a good one. For example, when Japan invaded into China during 1930s and 1940s, they spent much money on the research of chemical poisoned gas for the sake of mutilating more Chinese people. For the inhumanity action, can we say it is a good investment only because of the nature of research itself? Certainly not.
Finally, While the result of research is an important and essential element for a good investment, but not the only one. There are some other factors, besides the result, that should be taken into account, such as the cost, the number of people, and propriety, and so on. On the one hand, the cost is also a factor that should not be neglected by people. As an example of a firm, while the result of the research developed by the firm is good and definitive, we do not think the investment good if the costs are beyond the extent that the firm can afford and thus other researches besides this or even the whole firm would be affected by this research. In other words, considering the costs should be taken as a practical action from the angle of the overall situation. On the other hand, the propriety between the immediate problems and long-term problems solved by research is the factor that we should be taken into account. If neglecting the immediate problems and firstly spending on the research of the long-term problems, many trivial but immediate problems may be not to be solved in time and thus could lead to make a serious problem to erupt, which is harmful and can not be considered as a good investment.
In sum, in the long run, money spent on any research used correctly is a good investment. The approval to ignoring the result of research may be used as a perfect pretext by someone who actually does things harmful to society and people in the name of research. We should demonstrate the research by analyzing its aspects of any sorts before deciding to make a research. |
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