Choosing Our Future
We all want the best for our family, our community, our nation, and the human race as a whole. Whether motivated by our precious children, by the teachings of Abraham, Jesus, Mohammed, or Buddha, or by the beauty of life’s many gifts, we are all deeply invested in the community with whom we share a common future. In the United States, we are fortunate to live in a democracy where we choose our leaders and expect them to act in our best interest. Not everyone is so lucky.
Our ancestors in this democracy have made a range of choices that ensure our health and prosperity today. Key among these has been investments in science and technology.
After World War II, the landmark study “The Endless Frontier” made the case for federal contributions to research as a sustaining engine for U.S. prosperity and security. From 1940 to 1964, federal investment in research grew by 20 times, peaking at 2% of GDP [AAAS, 2024]. These investments established an unparalleled research and development ecosystem that put a man on the Moon and supplied the innovations that are at the foundation of countless businesses.
Since 1950, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has supported foundational research in all disciplines. The NSF has been wildly successful and offered a 150-300% rate of return on investment [Bierman, 2025]. As a result, many countries created their own “NSFs”, trying to replicate its great success.
Since the 1970s, the United States has allocated billions of research dollars annually through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These investments have led to a dramatic reduction in cancer death rates and have also been very good for business, with the US bringing more cancer drugs to market than any other country in the world [Bierman, 2025]. The benefits of these investments go far beyond cancer. Most of the pharmaceutical wonders now available at the drugstore started with an idea supported by US federal research grants. With NIH, NSF, and other federal agencies supporting a continuum from foundational to applied research, the US research ecosystem has been the envy of the world for decades.
China is following the example the US set decades ago, which is playing a key role in its current geopolitical and economic trajectory. In 2024 alone, China increased its research funding by 10%, continuing a long-term trend. The U.S., by contrast, cut funding by 2.7% the same year. Our choice to invest less and less has allowed China to leap ahead in electric vehicles, robotic manufacturing, and hypersonics, as just a few examples. China’s trajectory of steadily increasing investments – from 1% of GDP in 2000 to 2.4% of GDP today - is in stark contrast to the US, where investment has declined to under 0.8% of GDP. [STAC, 2025]
Of course, investments must be within our budget. We must decide how much we wish to spend on these common endeavors that strengthen our society and enrich our collective future. What choices did our ancestors make in this respect? They asked the wealthy and the corporations they control to contribute at a reasonable level. Individual taxes are complicated and estimates vary, but the bottom line is that the top 1% of earners in the 1940s paid taxes equivalent to 40-50% of their annual income, while now they pay only about 25% [McClelland and Airi, 2021]. Note that this is a percent of income, not a percent of wealth – the wealthy have been able to remain wealthy even when they contributed more. Corporate tax revenue relative to GDP is also much lower in the US compared to peer countries. Even Warren Buffett has called out the absurdity of expecting the wealthy to contribute so little to our society.
In Spring 2025, President Trump is proposing dramatic cuts to federal investments in science and technology research, cuts from 40% to 50% across various funding agencies. At a time when we should be spending more to solve today’s and tomorrow’s problems, these proposed cuts would be catastrophic. The President wants to put the brakes on our efforts to develop clean energy sources, cure cancer, make better predictions of extreme weather, build robots and microchips, and innovate in thousands of other ways. If enacted, this will stifle the next generation of science and technology leaders, driving young scientists away from research at the moment of their greatest promise because they have no choice but to pay their bills [Reardon et al. 2025]. The President is proposing to cut off the discoveries that would lead to new businesses, a more globally competitive economy, and greater resilience to environmental and security threats. And to what end? His goal is to a massive tax cut in which the top 20% of earners would get two-thirds of the cuts, and the top 1% one-quarter [Gleckman, 2025].
History clearly shows that this approach will not support the growing prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s. We will not win collectively by propping up the fortunes of the few on the backs of the many. Do we want a thriving democracy with a growing middle class or an increasingly divided and unequal society manipulated by oligarchs? Do we want US ascendancy or prefer to follow Russia’s example? We must speak up as members of this democratic society to choose the most promising path.
Tell your elected leaders what you want [Find Your Member]. They answer to you, and now is the time to tell them you want more, not less, investment in science and technology. Tell them you believe that the people and corporations who can afford it must contribute their fair share. Together, we are choosing our future, and your voice needs to be heard.
Galen A. McKinley
Citizen, Mother, Scientist
New York City
May 2025