Too Long; Didn't Read
In 2015, Dr. Eric Lander, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was invited to the first National Math Festival to give a speech. He claimed that the criteria with which the projects for the country's economy and defense would be justified for funding was not applicable to the basic research. People usually had a wrong perception of how basic research would pay off in the long run. We can ask ourselves - who would want to invest money in research that had a longer-than 2000 year payback than scientific research.