Dr. Michio Kaku on Why The US Educational System (and in turn economy) Has Not Collapsed

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In short, he says why the US educational system has not collapsed because of the H-1B visa. It allows foreigners to temporarily be employed in specialty occupations (science, engineering, medicine, etc).



He is 100% right. As a researcher, in my US college school, I am the only US born in my group of colleagues. that means 4/5 of the people in my group are foreign. He goes on and says that 100% of his PhD candidates are foreign born (NYU) and about 50% PhD candidates (I think it is higher) in the US are foreign.

Now, I know that 2/5 and eventually all the people in my research group are going to be looking for jobs. Guess what? They most certainly have a H-1B visa that allows them to do that.

Take away the H1-B visa and the US economy COLLAPSES along with the educational system.

Ever wonder why you get foreign TAs in college who can't speak English? Now you know why.

reply to post by fordrew


He is totally right! I've not seen Michio speak out so passionately before. Applauds to him!

yep... all the way back to operation paperclip.

I thought all americans already knew this by now...

I have no insight into the US educational system. But yesterday someone on ATS wrote that differential equations were "pretty advanced mathematics". That left me pondering.

Originally posted by CriticalCK
I have no insight into the US educational system. But yesterday someone on ATS wrote that differential equations were "pretty advanced mathematics". That left me pondering.

Diffy Q isn't really that hard. Just takes a lot of practice.

Now partial diffy is a different story...

reply to post by fordrew


Maybe it's time for the government to do to the teachers' unions what they did to the air traffic controllers' union. Trouble is, it will take money to attract qualified teachers who are willing to cross picket lines.

What is wrong with our education system that wee can't produce students capable of advanced degrees in math, science and engineering?

I see examples every day of grown adults who cannot think logically and who enshrine fallacies as truths, who are unable to perform mathematics at the baseline college level (Algebra) and who cannot write, spell, punctuate or express themselves verbally without sounding like a retarded 10 year old.

Something has gone very wrong in America. Idiocracy has become the new order of our age.

Originally posted by 0zzymand0s


I see examples every day of grown adults who cannot think logically and who enshrine fallacies as truths, who are unable to perform mathematics at the baseline college level (Algebra) and who cannot write, spell, punctuate or express themselves verbally without sounding like a retarded 10 year old.

Something has gone very wrong in America. Idiocracy has become the new order of our age.

Your wrong there ace!!! Theirs lots of plenty smart people but you aint one of em.

I'm sorry! I really am! I just couldn't help myself.

Originally posted by CriticalCK
I have no insight into the US educational system. But yesterday someone on ATS wrote that differential equations were "pretty advanced mathematics". That left me pondering.

How many people even need trigonometry, let alone the first few years of calculus, and then differential equations? Of course diff eq's are advanced. Of course, I always felt that way mainly because I slept through half the class...

The 1970s still saw a demand for and interest in science, math, and engineering degrees. During the 1980s, with aerospace layoffs and an increasing demand and interest in business, finance, and law degrees, students went into those fields. As religious fundamentalism gained strength, interest in science dropped, and Bible colleges became popular for degrees.

Someone told me a few years back that Bill Gates is a hero to Chinese and Indian students, while American students have sports heroes. If anything, Americans are fascinated more with Gates's money status than his technological entrepreneurship.

America needs these foreign students with their interest in science and engineering, in order to offset our cultural decline and lack in these areas. Once again, Dr. Kaku is right on.

reply to post by 0zzymand0s


That probably has a lot to do with how our culture is so centered around idolizing 'pop culture' icons and sports 'heroes'. They see these people that do little to no real work, but make the highest salaries in this country. People who don't even have the resemblance of a proper education but yet they make insane amounts of money.

Then they look at how job outsourcing keeps increasing and some have to wonder why they would want to waste their time trying to get an education for a job that they have little chance at keeping for the long term and won't get paid a fraction of what some illiterate moron gets just for sitting on their behind.

This is the reality of our country that we are allowing to be created. Our children aren't stupid, they're willfully ignorant because our society as a whole is completely and utterly braindead and they see no point in trying to learn when the best ways to success in this country appears to be centered around being as blatantly stupid as humanly possible.

reply to post by whaaa


Banal, jejune, and irrelevant. I never claimed to be the "smartest." i am just making an observation.

Americans are very smart.
Look at the fine example of American youths in Jersey Shore.
Go America!
Yes we can!

4.bp.blogspot.com...

This is a bunch of bunk. This is exactly why the educational system and the economy is in such bad shape. We have deemed it "too hard" to train Americans to do technical higher education tasks. I think the profit equation is the driving force behind it. There are plenty of Americans that are capable of doing the same work, but once their studies are done it becomes more expensive to keep them, so we bring in foriegners instead. A pretty disgusting world we live in.

You want to fix it? Hire proper teachers who have a degree in what they're teaching, and don't shy away from teaching concepts that seem too hard. Sometimes a student just has to fail if they don't understand what they're learning. Also less focus on multiple choice and plug and chug, and more focus on concepts and theory.