The U.S. Brain Drain: How Policies Are Driving Talent Away

The joke is that China is always 24 hours behind US tech... because they wake up everyday and just steal the IP.

 

Debate aside, facts.

 

With China putting tons of money into basic science and producing millions of STEM grads each year, it is only a matter of time before they catch up or even surpass the US in innovation. Don't think it is possible? Just revisit this topic in 15-20 years.

They went from absolutely nothing (zero research and a handful of higher education institutes that were completely broken after cultural revolution) to where they are now in 40 years, Check the world top 300 colleges from 2000 to 2025 and see the changes or lookup the number of patterns generated in the world each year by country in the same period.

 

Reposted by Josh Marshall

‪Josh Marshall‬
‪@joshtpm.bsky.social‬
· 1h
Hearing now that every National Science Foundation grant is having to go through a new “DOGE review”. So existing grants and long term science and technology research having to undergo review by one of Elon’s interns. Huge percentage not passing their muster.

Wtf - a bunch of online neo Nazis chuds plucked straight from 4chan without college degrees deciding which quantum physics or origin of life or whatever other highly specialized field experiments get funded because they're not woke.

**** Elon and **** DOGE - they are complete anti science monkey ****ers

 

Can confirm.

 

It's also a tiny fraction of tuition costs in comparable top 300 colleges. CCP also wants to attract students elsewhere like emerging nations as they bet on those markets for growth over the west.

The American university model for financing is a bit grotesque. It's considered a crown jewel of American dominance but tuition costs outpaced inflation and for the past 2 decades it relied on foreign Chinese students paying exorbitant tuition and living costs to fill their coffers.

There's already been drawdowns for that golden goose since the first Trump, then COVID, and these college admins haven't adjusted accordingly.

So I'm not sure unis can un**** what Trump is doing, but they also have core issues that have lingered for a long time. Undergrad vs graduate performance should be another topic as it holds different challenges...

• Affordability
• ROI in non stem degrees
• Dearth of non Asian participation in stem degrees to match employment demand
• ROI in pure research
• Financial sustainability despite no end to rising tuition costs
• Rising operating costs for salaries, campus safety, technology, insurance, and facilities maintenance
• Admin bloat

They're also inheriting American problems like

• Systemic inequality and it's fights for access (AA perspectives from both sides)
• Lower domestic enrollment due to demographics
• Increasing numbers of unprepared dummies from public schools
• Whiny students litigating rather than overcoming

I won't disagree that Trump is the bull in the China shop. Wapo's Josh Rogan on Bill Maher said something like Trump diagnoses the problem correctly but with the most terrible solutions. I agree with that in a general sense, but some libs think agreeing even one thing he does equal support to facsism...

Colleges used Chinese students and foreign brain capital as perfume to mask their endemic problems while continuing a policy of excessive growth like it was a SPY stock. Was it worth it for American students?

The ones who didn't "make it" voted for the populist. oopsies

 

Trump is doing a great example of the operation is a success, the patient died. I am not sure Americans want to face the problems in this nation or want a real solution.

 

No one is claiming Kamala had or offered any answers to problems the press is now "noticing" Trump is bungling. Out of respect for the dead, I won't go into how Biden bungled **** while people claimed it was working behind the scenes.

Frankly, I rather have someone go all in with the poker chips they have rather than feeling paralyzed and dying a slow death by increasing blinds. Our election cycle is not equipped to handle long term planning the CCP is leveraging.

The "populist coalition" Trump won with is also a nod that we're all on our own for the foreseeable future.

Libs don't understand the demographic shifts behind Kamala's loss. Until they come to grips with their denial, we won't have any actionable consensus.

 

She's also not the ****ing issue right now. Move on.

 

Has any demonstrable success been achieved? The reality appears to be that the patient will die before any meaningful progress can be realized.

 

To who?

 

Where?

 

huh?

 

Who?

 

The US had China on the ropes & Trump let them off by turning us into North Korea

Oops; dumb f-ck

 

Are these numbers valid though?

I get that's what the press release says China’s Expenditure on Research and Experimental Development (R&D) Exceeded 3.6 Trillion Yuan in 2024

But they constantly fudge data for national propaganda purposes

Covid was a perfect example

It seems like a mammoth number considering after Health, Social Security, Defense, Interest and Vet Benefits... the US has pennies left over in comparison (regardless of admin that's been where the US budget goes)

 

US holds off China challenge in global R&D spending race | Science|Business

Closely watched science and technology indicators from Washington DC show the US is still the world’s biggest spender on research and development, confounding expectations that China would takeover the lead.

A faltering Chinese economy and plummeting birthrates have driven a conversation over whether the world has reached ‘peak China’, where Beijing’s economic and geopolitical ascendancy over the US no longer looks inevitable. Now, a similar debate is happening in the domain of R&D.

But in recent years the US has seen a “huge surge” in corporate spending on R&D, particularly by IT and pharmaceutical companies, Prabhakar said.

“It came from businesses,” she said. “What you see in these numbers is the intensification of our innovation economy.”

The statistics bear this out: from 2018 to 2021, business R&D spending ballooned by more than a third, to over $600 billion. Meanwhile, federally funded R&D stayed roughly flat as a proportion of the economy, Prabhakar noted.

Private sector R&D is now so important in the US than it funds almost as great a proportion of basic research (36%) as the federal government (40%).

Of course, raw expenditure is only one measure of performance. Other sections of the report are much more sobering reading for US policymakers. The NSB warned that China has now surpassed the US in “STEM talent production, research publications, patents, and knowledge-and technology-intensive manufacturing”.


Echoing the point Invisible Fan made, but not as dystopian.

 

What is your solution??