Let’s focus on technical arguments, not on “they can make money”, because that’s true for everyone.
Unfortunately it’s a bit more complicated than how much an individual can earn.
Science, especially hard science, needs funding. Grants are what makes contemporary science happen.
If you throw a couple of hundred millions at people who are actively working to prove X and only a couple of hundred thousands at people who are trying to disprove X, a couple of things will happen. First there will be lots of “statistically significant” results in favor of X and very few not in its favor. Second, people will quickly learn what kind of proposals do get grants and what kind do not. Stir and let stew for a few years and hey! you got yourself a consensus :-/
However, industry funds research as well as academia (indeed, sometimes in far greater degree.) Industry backed think tanks are quite well funded; although one could certainly posit political factors, it’s not for a lack of money that they’ve failed to produce research that has swayed much of the scientific community.
Unfortunately it’s a bit more complicated than how much an individual can earn.
Science, especially hard science, needs funding. Grants are what makes contemporary science happen.
If you throw a couple of hundred millions at people who are actively working to prove X and only a couple of hundred thousands at people who are trying to disprove X, a couple of things will happen. First there will be lots of “statistically significant” results in favor of X and very few not in its favor. Second, people will quickly learn what kind of proposals do get grants and what kind do not. Stir and let stew for a few years and hey! you got yourself a consensus :-/
However, industry funds research as well as academia (indeed, sometimes in far greater degree.) Industry backed think tanks are quite well funded; although one could certainly posit political factors, it’s not for a lack of money that they’ve failed to produce research that has swayed much of the scientific community.