I think an important part is to recognize that fundamental research is extremely foundational. We often don't recognize the impacts because by the time we see them they have passed through other layers. Maybe in the same way that we forget about the ground existing and being the biggest contributor to Usain Bolt's speed. Can't run if there's no ground.
But to see economic impact, I'll make the bet that a single mathematical work (technically two) had a greater economic impact than all technologies in the last 2 centuries. Calculus. I haven't run the calculations (seems like it'd be hard and I'd definitely need calculus to do them), but I'd be willing to bet that every year Calculus results in a greater economic impact than FAANG, MANGO, or whatever the hot term is these days, does.
It seems almost silly to say this and it is obviously so influential. But things like this fade away into the background the same way we almost never think about the ground beneath our feet.
I have to say this because we're living in a time where people are arguing we shouldn't build roads because cars are the things that get us places. But this is just framing, and poor framing at that. Frankly, part of it is that roads are typically built through public funds and cars through private. It's this way because the road is able to make much higher economic impact by being a public utility rather than a private one. Incidentally, this makes the argument to not build roads self-destructive. It's short sighted. Just like actual roads, research has to be continuously performed. The reality is more akin to those cartoon scenes where a character is laying down the railroad tracks just in front of the speeding train.[0] I guess if you're not Gromit placing down the tracks it is easy to assume they just exist.
But unlike actual roads, research is relatively cheap. Sure, maybe a million mathematicians don't produce anything economically viable for that year and maybe not 20, but one will produce something worth trillions. And they do this at a mathematician's salary! You can hire research mathematicians at least 2 to 1 for a junior SWE. 10 to 1 for a staff SWE. It's just crazy to me that we're arguing we don't have the money for these kinds of things. I mean just look at the impact of Tim Berners Lee and his team. That alone offsets all costs for the foreseeable future. Yet somehow his net worth is in the low millions? I think we really should question this notion that wealth is strongly correlated to impact.
It's the problem of having organised our economic life in this way, or rather, exclusively this way.