Slight Tangent:
Before I got my BS in Applied Physics, I did a lot of research in experimental astroparticle physics. I learned a lot of interdisciplinary stuff, and I thought those combinations would easily land me at least a ~40k job doing something (programming, electronics stuff, whatever). Turned out I was wrong, and I couldn't find a job anywhere in my hometown (even though I could run circles around any of the new CS grads in most languages) I learned a hard lesson that I thought would haunt me for the next decade: People don't want to hire scientists, they only want engineers. I got a shitty $15/hr part time job as a test tech, got sick of that and then realized I couldn't get into grad school for financial reasons. I had a bit of money so I applied only to physics jobs at high profile schools or labs across the country (partially motivated by this site, actually). Within a week I got an email back from Stanford (SLAC) to do an interview for a developer. It turned out that I had all the right kinds of experience, and I just started last Thursday at what can only be described as the perfect job for me right now.
I think most companies these days just overlook the value of research, basic science, and scientists in favor of marketing, products, and engineers. The risk that research doesn't lead to a marketable product is too high for almost every company, and that's a shame.
I think it is more the freerider problem; Bell didn't suffer it significantly because they held a huge monopoly, and had few other ways to expand, even if others would benefit freely from their research.
Slight Tangent: Before I got my BS in Applied Physics, I did a lot of research in experimental astroparticle physics. I learned a lot of interdisciplinary stuff, and I thought those combinations would easily land me at least a ~40k job doing something (programming, electronics stuff, whatever). Turned out I was wrong, and I couldn't find a job anywhere in my hometown (even though I could run circles around any of the new CS grads in most languages) I learned a hard lesson that I thought would haunt me for the next decade: People don't want to hire scientists, they only want engineers. I got a shitty $15/hr part time job as a test tech, got sick of that and then realized I couldn't get into grad school for financial reasons. I had a bit of money so I applied only to physics jobs at high profile schools or labs across the country (partially motivated by this site, actually). Within a week I got an email back from Stanford (SLAC) to do an interview for a developer. It turned out that I had all the right kinds of experience, and I just started last Thursday at what can only be described as the perfect job for me right now.
I think most companies these days just overlook the value of research, basic science, and scientists in favor of marketing, products, and engineers. The risk that research doesn't lead to a marketable product is too high for almost every company, and that's a shame.