Mind Flight
Feb. 4th, 2004 09:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsThere has been a lot of concern recently, especially among my peers, about the exporting of programming and other information technology jobs overseas to nations like India and Korea. And while there are a lot of factors involved in this international outsourcing issue, Richard Florida has identified another: mind flight inspired by the Bush Administration.
The thesis is intriguing. If any of you watched the Mars landings recently on NASA TV, you may have been struck by the number of Asian, Indian, and otherwise "foreign" specialists working together to make Spirit and Opportunity work. We in America have always been a powerhouse of intellectual development not just because we were economically powerful, but because our intellectual freedom and spirit of scientific inquiry was the best in the world. The best and brightest wanted to work in the U.S. because here is where the action lives.
But, as Florida writes,
If this is true, then Bush Co. has encouraged the disintegration of the middle class by discouraging foreigners from opting in to the American dream. They're happier at home than they are fighting the anti-science culture that pervades our nation.
If it's true, then you have Bush Co. to thank for massive deficits from which there will be no economic recovery worth mentioning, and no economic powerhouse to pay them down someday. Because the intellectual capital needed to run that economic recovery will not be living in the United States.
The thesis is intriguing. If any of you watched the Mars landings recently on NASA TV, you may have been struck by the number of Asian, Indian, and otherwise "foreign" specialists working together to make Spirit and Opportunity work. We in America have always been a powerhouse of intellectual development not just because we were economically powerful, but because our intellectual freedom and spirit of scientific inquiry was the best in the world. The best and brightest wanted to work in the U.S. because here is where the action lives.
But, as Florida writes,
By thumbing our nose at the world and dismissing the consensus views of the scientific community, we are scaring off that talent and sending it to our competitors.In the most telling paragraph, though, Florida lays it down hard. When inquiring as to why the number of research and applications development-related visa dropped 55% since Bush took office, Florida concluded
that the biggest reason has to do with the changed political and policy landscape in Washington. In the 1990s, the federal government focused on expanding America's human capital and interconnectedness to the world--crafting international trade agreements, investing in cutting edge R&D, subsidizing higher education and public access to the Internet, and encouraging immigration. But in the last three years, the government's attention and resources have shifted to older sectors of the economy, with tariff protection and subsidies to extractive industries. Meanwhile, Washington has stunned scientists across the world with its disregard for consensus scientific views when those views conflict with the interests of favored sectors (as has been the case with the issue of global climate change). Most of all, in the wake of 9/11, Washington has inspired the fury of the world, especially of its educated classes, with its my-way-or-the-highway foreign policy. In effect, for the first time in our history, we're saying to highly mobile and very finicky global talent, "You don't belong here."
If this is true, then Bush Co. has encouraged the disintegration of the middle class by discouraging foreigners from opting in to the American dream. They're happier at home than they are fighting the anti-science culture that pervades our nation.
If it's true, then you have Bush Co. to thank for massive deficits from which there will be no economic recovery worth mentioning, and no economic powerhouse to pay them down someday. Because the intellectual capital needed to run that economic recovery will not be living in the United States.
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-04 06:24 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-04 06:53 pm (UTC)These days, it is the administration, and they're the face our intellectual capital imports must deal with-- and no longer want to deal with.
I loathe the way the Euros treat the US like a mentally retarded step-brother while Germany struggles to adopt "US university standards", the vast bulk of Noble-winning authors continue to come out of the US, we continue to produce the greater share of agricultural, pharmaceutical, and intellectual benefits... ah, you know the drill.
But this article has a point: if the United States is no longer perceived as the place to do research and innovation, then its doomed. We have little else we can sell so dearly.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-04 07:56 pm (UTC)And it will get worse, with states like Georgia trying to claim to their teenagers that world history starts in the year 1500, and there was no Civil War. How long would you listen to crap like that from someone before you'd walk away and talk to someone else? I wouldn't wait long at all...and neither will the rest of the world.
yup this sucks
Date: 2004-02-04 07:45 pm (UTC)and its not just because of 911 either this was starting when the whole cloning mess started in the public news and many companies are farming out bio-tech simply becasue they dont want to deal with the bad publicity in the US because of Bio-techs association with cloning or GM basicaly it sucks for us because not all of us are so closed minded me im a student and inventor ( of worthless gadgets) so i see any tech and think how could i use that and would it be cool for me i know its selfish but for the GM stuff i would love to be able to get grass for my yard that dosnt grow so fast or high so i dont have to mow the yard so much or vita-matoes like vitamin enriched tomatos or new kinds of fruit i know its all dangerouse territory now but eventualy with a free exchange of ideas maybe somday
Re: yup this sucks
Date: 2004-02-04 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-06 04:19 am (UTC)a party who's main goal is to benifit the govt through science in exploration of its uses with political views more moderate
Re:
Date: 2004-02-06 04:12 pm (UTC)