Originally posted by X-tal_Phusion
Why are we expecting aliens to save our hides? Why don't we just give our scientists the support they need to conduct their research? They spend more
time chasing dwindling grants than engaging in creative endeavors that spur important technological innovation! Don't get me started on all the
foreign students coming in because we don't give enough future American scientists the academic support they need as they drift through our failing
public school system! We've lost our competitive edge and it's only a matter of time before we find ourselves unable to purchase it cheaply from the
rest of the world. Change the way science is taught in our schools and do away with grants (switch to a stipend system) if the US is serious about
technological progress. Let's save ourselves!
The USA is OK in university science research. But university science research does not lead to widespread prosperity unless it is applied in
commercial practice.
It is losing its technological edge because of the ideology of business and money which wants to eliminate low profit, but highly valuable (to GDP)
manufacturing industries.
"They" say "we'll keep R&D in the USA", but inevitably it leaves too, because the best applied R&D happens in sniffing distance of the
manufacturing plant. This makes the transition from university->corporate lab->manufacturing->wealth creation easier.
The reason that US students don't go into science as much (or is a smaller fraction of graduate students) is obvious: there aren't as many
opportunities for the amount of work that you have to do. (The second point is that overseas students are much more profitable for universities as
they have to pay much more $$$).
An Asian student can try to get a job in the USA (in science there is almost no ethnic discrimination on the technical side) or go back to a booming
economy. An American scientist has little chance of getting the same job in Asia and has immense language & cultural difficulties in Korea, China &
Japan, and huge visa & bureaucratic difficulties in India. As well as the fact that the Asian countries are nationalistic and hire only their own for
any serious high level job. (ethnic & gender discrimination isn't illegal in China, e.g.) (And the EU hires mostly EU citizens, USA citizens have a
hard time getting jobs too.)
The same applies to the U.K. even more. The UK had excellent basic science through 1960's but little economic return. The USA had good (in 1900) to
excellent basic science but through the 1960's got much more economic return from it, because US companies used it to make stuff in the USA.
Only serious high-tech manufacturing in the USA which remains in significant quantity is weaponry & Boeing (which is half weapons already). Weapons
are wealth destroyers, not wealth creators.
(yes I'm a PhD in physics.).
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?
I have grown up from the early 60's and your claims are based on whats posted on other sites. 
