Well, Russia did pay to free the serfs and it would have worked if they didn’t design it so that the former serfs had to pay back the debt themselves. Similarly, Ireland paid the big landholders off in a series of acts from 1870 − 1909 which created a new small landholding class. In fact, this type of thing historically seems to work when it concerns purchasing property rights.
The analogy though is imperfect for knowledge workers. They don’t own the knowledge in the same way. Perhaps, the best way to do this is as previously mentioned, to get a sizable portion of current accomplished researchers to spend time on the problem by purchasing their time.
Well, Russia did pay to free the serfs and it would have worked if they didn’t design it so that the former serfs had to pay back the debt themselves. Similarly, Ireland paid the big landholders off in a series of acts from 1870 − 1909 which created a new small landholding class. In fact, this type of thing historically seems to work when it concerns purchasing property rights.
The analogy though is imperfect for knowledge workers. They don’t own the knowledge in the same way. Perhaps, the best way to do this is as previously mentioned, to get a sizable portion of current accomplished researchers to spend time on the problem by purchasing their time.