Collin Vaughan

Government
Mrs. Wallrich
Scientific Research and Affirmative Action

Scientific research in the United States is poorly funded. That factual statement in itself is
enough to make me question the allocation of our governments funds. Aside from that,
affirmative action is a poorly constructed policy that could potentially be much more effective. It
seems as if America is naturally inclined to do things inadequately, but because political ideology
is so subjective, I am not able to confidently make that assertion.
Conservative political ideology often hinders the progression of scientific research by
restricting funding. That might seem like a trivial issue, but the implications that accompany
such barbaric decisions are severe. Congress canceled the development of the Superconducting
Super Collider in 1993, a particle accelerator that had the prospective capability of providing
more scientific data regarding certain subatomic particles. That information was obviously not
very important to the government. Now, to talk about affirmative action, it is important to
contextualize the legislation to delve into the psyche of minorities who benefit from such
statutes. Underrepresented minorities are subjected to frequent, pervasive discrimination even
in 2015. In the labor force and in academia, minorities are sometimes favored by hiring
managers or admissions committees simply because of their status as a minority, which improves
the diversity of the organization. Consequently, affirmative action is highly controversial. It
should aim to aid minorities while simultaneously being fair enough to render criticism illogical.
To fix these issues, a lot can be done. It just will not happen. Science can get more
funding, which means that society would discover and grow. It also means that there is an
indeterminable opportunity cost, as the funding will have to come from somewhere. Some other
facet of society would have to work with less money, or citizens would have to pay more taxes.

Collin Vaughan
Government
Mrs. Wallrich
Scientific Research and Affirmative Action

Personally, I think the best solution would be to increase taxes to fund scientific research that is
deemed significant by academic leaders. With the affirmative action, though, solutions are not
binary. I think it has too much influence, but I also think that the law itself is beautiful and
justified. Perhaps a system could quantify the amount of influence affirmative action has on an
individuals life by evaluating their unique set of circumstances, causing a big albeit
controversial change.
To sum it all up, scientific research (when it matters) and affirmative action should be
approached differently. The thing that stops such potentially productive changes is the lack of
individuality in our country; politicians are mostly interested in retaining the support they
receive, so suggesting an increase in taxes to fund things such as particle accelerators might not
be at the top of their to-do lists. Even so, if there will ever be changes like this, the only way to
facilitate them is to continue to voice opinions and discuss possible solutions for issues that seem
to be perpetual.