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> I don't see the private sector funding ethnomusicology, philosophy, ecology, social history, ...

sseagull mentioned NSF, NIH and DOE. None of those funds ethnomusicology, philosophy, or social history.

You left out ecology (again, which wouldn't be funded by business and I would consider important for society).

The NSF also gets somewhat close to the others via Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, which includes anthropology/archaeology and linguistics.

I am highly suspicious of the need for post-doctoral training in philosophy, ecology, or social history and even more skeptical of the ethics of using tax payer's money to fund those positions.

Ecology is a probably a field where the world would be better off if we re-appropriated post-doc funding to USFS and hired people with bs or even no degrees to do important work on the ground.

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