When Proposition 71 was being pushed on the voters, campaign propaganda assured Californians that the money would pour in to state coffers if they only gave scientists the constitutional right to do human cloning and embryonic stem cell research. The same tactic was deployed in Missouri in Amendment 2. Now, we find in California, that such promises were, shall we say, exaggerated. Even if it all works—a big if—the check will not be in the mail.
“The state could get between $537 million and $1.1 billion in royalty returns from it’s $3 billion stem cell investment,” the story states. Except, this wholly understates the loss. When interest is included on the loans our broke state will be taking out to give Big Biotech and its business partners in universities bounteous amounts of corporate welfare, the amount owed by taxpayers will be a whopping $6-7 billion. So, even if the CURES! CURES! CURES! come through, California loses at least %5 billion.
It’s funny isn’t it, how these studies and reports never come out before elections where they might have some real meaning. Now, with the horse out of the barn, it is just so much hot air.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
