Suffering costs people money. Cancer care costs about $200 billion dollars a year. Who in their right mind would cure cancer when it's so profitable??? /s
Pretty much this. It's this-quarter thinking: if we develop a cure, what are the profits gonna look like this quarter. Not next quarter, not in 3 years when it's proven effective and sells on the market like hotcakes, this quarter. Short-term profit-seeking is killing us all.
We are getting very close to excellent treatments while also multiplying our knowledge base. Now is the time to step on the financial gas. But, we won't, and private business will reap the benefits.
First, stop calling it a "moonshot." That only bolsters the Republican argument. They'd used the word at least 25 times before I got far enough into the article to know they weren't talking about experiments in space. Experiments a reasonable person might think it could be reasonable to cut.