No need to apologize at all – I think that slogan hits the nail on the head, and I agree completely that “education”, “R&D”, and “science” all fit there nicely! I would actually go further and include the arts as well. That argument is more complex, however, if you’re dealing with someone who measures everything in terms of economic impact as the benefits are harder to quantify.

I usually use the slogan:

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance”

Replace education with ‘R&D’, or ‘science’ where applicable.

Just wanted to chip in. Apologies.

I think this can be generalized to a problem with only seeing immediate costs versus later, harder-to-quantify costs and benefits.

For instance, some decry raising additional money to pay for transit improvements while cheerfully ignoring the costs of crumbling infrastructure to the future and the possible benefits from an investment.

Curiously, many of the same people seem to be able to understand investment in fiduciary instruments like stocks, bonds, CDs, and so on, but cannot appear to translate this understanding to investment in education and infrastructure.

I was just having a very similar conversation to this with a co-worker (who is working on her capstone for a Education degree) yesterday. All I can add is a cheer of support to your position.