I don't believe in those 'darwinian' notion of societal priorities, I'm just pointing out that those are baked into your priorities. If reducing cost is the priority, the machine (government/society) will churn out a solution that reflects the priorities it is programmed with.

I don't know about your characterization that "Basically all research..."

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0708558