Some people think scientific research should be carried out and controlled by the government instead of private companies. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
The advancement of modern sciences has spawned a host of boons in our lives. It is no exaggeration that human life has been fundamentally revolutionized by the physical, chemical, biological, environmental or astronomical discoveries and creations over the past few decades. Yet when it comes to who should play the central role in conducting scientific research, people hold divergent views. Some contend that it is the government, rather than the private firms, who should carry out and regulate scientific research. Personally, I think their view has both merit and demerit.
Grandly, the government has a crucial role to play in scientific research. First, corporations are entities in constant pursuit of maximum profit at the lowest possible cost. As a consequence, corporate scientific research, if left unfettered, often compromise ethics for the sake of shareholder wealth. Only the government has the regulatory and enforcement power to ensure that scientific research does not sacrifice public interests for private gains. Secondly, government coordination can help optimize the economic resources allocated to scientific research. Contemporary scientific research often requires colossal amounts of money and substantial researching manpower. Government supervision makes for effective collaboration and healthy competition between companies, warns the privates firms about the potential perils of ill-conceived projects and set priorities—in terms of societal interests.
Nonetheless, it is manifest that corporate scientific research also holds many inherent advantages. To begin with, given the profit-pursuing nature of business, corporate research typically has well-defined guidelines and objectives for every mission. Unlike government projects that have to weigh and balance competing interests, company research is almost always focused, well-scheduled, well-budgeted, and result-oriented. Secondly, due to the profitability of company research, corporate professionals performing scientific research mostly find themselves better rewarded financially than researchers working for government projects. And this fact, in turn, renders these professionals more motivated in their laboratories. Lastly, private firms are more meritocratic and less likely to be plagued with the bureaucracy characterizing many government agencies. Therefore, corporate research is often more efficient and more productive than its governmental counterpart.
In the final analysis, I concede that government direction can crown scientific research with an ethical compass. Nevertheless, corporate companies hold definite advantages over the government in scientific research with respect to efficiency and productivity. On balance, I am convinced that it should be the private firms who perform scientific research whereas government scrutiny can ensure that these companies are aware of the ethical stakes involved and do not lose sight of the public interests while pursuing their goals.
Government 类词汇
当局 authorities
老百姓 citizens/ the citizenry（全体公民，不可数）
规范，管理 regulate/administer/oversee
实施implement
立法 legislate/make laws
严禁 strictly prohibit/ ban altogether
严格的法律 stringent laws/ legislation
监督 scrutiny（noun）/ scrutinize（vt）/ monitor（vt）
为…拨款 allocate money to something/ subsidize（vt）/ be a patron of / invest in/
finance（vt）/ fund（vt） dedicate money to something
预算budget
税收tax revenue
在某方面的开支 the government spending/ expenditure on something
削减curtail 增加
augment
当务之急 priority
把…当成当务之急 give priority to something.
责任 obligation/ responsibility
军备竞赛 arms race
自卫 self-defense
国土安全 national security/ homeland security
缺乏远见的 short-sighted policy
扩张 expansion/ aggression
谋求霸权 seek/ pursue hegemony
恶性循环 a vicious circle
地区不稳定因素 destabilizing factor
规章制度 rules and regulations
太空竞赛 space race
武器 arms/ weapons/ armaments
下岗工人 lay-off workers/ downsize workers
失业 unemployment/ joblessness
基础设施infrastructure—比如 public transport system 公共交通系统，power grid 电网pipelines 石油和天然气管道 water supply and drainage system 给排水系统等
民主与开放的 a democratic and progressive government
Government 类名人名言
1. "Millions of individual making their own decisions in the marketplace will always allocate resources better than any centralized government."—Ronald Reagan
2. "The problem is not that people are taxed too little, but that the government spends too much."—Ronald Reagan
3. "The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government"—Thomas Jefferson
Government 类模板
How the government can optimize its finite financial resources has long been a controversial issue.
如何优化配置有限的财政资源长期以来一直有争议。
There are a multitude of competing claims on the government's limited budget.
很多需要钱的领域都在争夺的有限预算。
Whether the government should allocated money to … has sparked off a spirited controversy.
是否应该投资…引起了激烈的争论。
How the government should administer…has long been an issue open to debate.
应该如何管理…一直都是有争议的话题。下载本文
