For sure, though in many ways basic science has become yet another form of wealth redistribution to minorities as they are preferentially hired in STEM. I was thinking more in terms of what's a good way to spend the existing science budget. Is CERN a good use for it or should more go towards other areas? The return on investment of the so called basic research is so slim that it should have been cut long ago. They need to build machines that cost tens of billions of dollars to, what, add a few more significant digits to the estimate of some particle masses? And I have a gnawing suspicion that the gravitational wave detection (LIGO and VIRGO) is outright fraud.
I mean, it's very likely you're correct about the wealth redistribution aspect in many cases. But there is so much to learn about the universe and never taking risks will amount to nothing. It's not my place to impose risk on other people, and the collective nature of human society forces us to do this with the allocation of public funds, but I strongly support the LHC project in particular. I can't speak for every basic research grant because I have personally seen the system exploited, but I can't advocate ending all basic research because of those cases.
CERN staff are mostly White, with a few Indians/Asians and maybe an outlier nigger
go do an image search on it
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