The Market of Ideas

There are two professions that seem to avoid the heavy hand of government regulation. Can anyone guess what they are? Hint, they are the professions that seem to influence legislation the most. That's right, the Law and the Academy. These professions would argue that their very industries promote a certain self-governance that precludes any sort of government regulation, a 'free market' where scrutiny and process force the mediocre out. I guess this free market is good because the goals are noble (justice and truth!) where as free market enterprise has an ignoble goal of profits. The irony is that these two untouchable professions are the ones that stand strongest against a free market for goods and services.

That aside, when the Academy becomes a 'rent seeker', is it still a body where self-governance rules supreme? I am thinking of the current controversy here in Virginia where a politically-motivated Attorney General is challenging a politically-motivated academic. The governments of the world pour hundreds of billions of dollars into the academy for scientific research. By any definition, this is a huge market that individual communities within the Academic structure seek to capture through (let's hope quality!) research. This sounds a lot like a marketplace. Should the academy be held responsible when it rips off its customers? Virginia feels ripped off by a certain Academic when his work was shown to be shoddy and politically motivated.

Is it time to regulate the academy? With so much cash flung about it creates a temptation to do terrible research, publish quickly, and tell the rent givers what they want to hear.