Good point, I have no idea what the return will be. However it is still pleasant to be employed as a researcher in this type of environment, and is something I think the US should do more of too, including increasing the funding of NASA.
Which leads us to an interesting question of how you even measure the benefit of such things... what was the financial gain returned from landing on the moon, for example? Lots of types of research have no direct financial gain yet still add to the overall progress of society. (Although this point might be straying far from the original intention of the article.)
I think it's fine to put money into fundamental R&D, NASA and the like. But, that's an expense. Treating it as such, lets us ask the right questions.
I didn't invest €3,000 last year in lunch, I ate €3,000 worth of lunch. The right question is "was it tasty?" In the kind of discourse that gets put around policy, I would be asking "what productivity gains did I make be eating lunch?"
That would be contrary to investment. Investing means putting off short term objectives for a chance of maximizing better long term ones. A nice lunch is a goal in itself, i.e. it makes you happy or w/e.
As far as I know, R&D is not a fundamental entertainment or the like (although NASA is), so it is an investment.
