# What exactly does a think tank do? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 3, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-a-think-tank-do/333865 "2005-12-03T04:28:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-a-think-tank-do/333865/1 "2005-12-03T04:28:14Z")
Well that is pretty much it - I don’t really get the concept of a think tank and why people would pour millions of dollars into them. I’m aware they influence policy etc. but when some dude says “I work for a think tank” what the heck doe he do all day long. Think? Please enlighten me. Twiddle ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-a-think-tank-do/333865/2 "2005-12-03T04:50:21Z")
I used to work at an educational think tank. We published books and videotapes, held conferences, and served as consultants. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-a-think-tank-do/333865/3 "2005-12-03T04:55:56Z")
I just wanted to chime in and say that this is a question that I always forget to ask. It seems very non-obvious how you could generate money simply producing ideas where the end consumer isn’t even clear. Where do they get their money from? Why does the source give it to them? What is their short-term goal? Do people literally get paid to think about a problem or is there some common methodology? What are their end products? ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-a-think-tank-do/333865/4 "2005-12-03T05:09:46Z")
I’m gonna go out on a limb here, and say think. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-a-think-tank-do/333865/5 "2005-12-03T05:16:11Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > I’m gonna go out on a limb here, and say think. Possibly in a tank of some sorts. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-a-think-tank-do/333865/6 "2005-12-03T06:06:05Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > Possibly in a tank of some sorts. My god! They’re Guild Navigators! ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-a-think-tank-do/333865/7 "2005-12-03T06:20:50Z")
The original concept was that educated people, from diverse fields of expertise would be supported in order to encourage them to develop new ways of examining old questions. That brought about new answers that helped develop at least new insights into our social, and technical and even religious thinking. However, it became a lot more common to gather influential people of similar ideological beliefs, and have them try to find ways of making their own opinions seem more important, and more politically desirable. The money comes from the same sources that drive our entire political system. Legalized bribery is the cornerstone of our system. Think tanks pay for themselves by providing billions of dollars in benefit, and even direct payments to people who are in positions to spend other people’s money. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-a-think-tank-do/333865/8 "2005-12-03T06:39:16Z")
They don’t do anything, that’s the beauty of them. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-a-think-tank-do/333865/9 "2005-12-03T06:46:56Z")
To expand on what **Triskadecamus** has said, think tanks are sometimes simply mouthpieces for whoever is paying them most, and will release reports and studies saying whatever that sponsor wants them to. The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution recently disgraced itself this way by publishing a book called _Samizdat_ that attacked Open Source Software using wholly unsubstantiated claims of code theft, especially in the development of the Linux kernel. [This review comes from one of the people AdTI alleged was stolen _from_, and he refutes all of their substantive arguments.](http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/brown/) So that’s how at least one think tank operates. ---
**Author:** ![Hemlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Hemlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hemlock)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-a-think-tank-do/333865/10 "2005-12-03T07:15:18Z")
They beg for money. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2005, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-does-a-think-tank-do/333865/11 "2005-12-03T14:59:41Z")
Like them or not don’t underestimate the power of politically oriented “think tanks”. A lot of competing political notions and ideas about the way US society needs to be run had their genesis and incubation in think tanks. [Wikipedia think tanks article covers it pretty well](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_tank) Here’s something I never knew > [@](#): > > Chinese think tanks > In the People’s Republic of China a number of think tanks are sponsored by governmental agencies but still retain sufficient non-official status to be able to propose and debate ideas more freely. Indeed, most of the actual diplomacy between China and the United States has taken the form of academic exchanges between members of think tanks.