David Baltimore paints ominous picture for U.S. economy:

[DjTj]

When Science Flees the U.S.
The trend could have ominous consequences.

By David Baltimore, David Baltimore won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for his research in virology, in 1975. He has been president of Caltech since 1997.

Not that long ago, the "global economy" meant that routine factory jobs were going overseas. The unions squawked, but others recognized that the U.S. could concentrate on high- value-added commerce: discovery, innovation, high-technology manufacturing, knowledge-based industries. And we've done very well developing technology and growing our economic base in these areas. So well, in fact, that such development seems like an auto-catalytic process or a "virtuous cycle" that will continue propelling us forward for generations.

But the system is overtaking us. We no longer have a lock on technology. Europe is increasingly competitive, and Asia has the potential to blow us out of the water.

In the last 20 years, many of the students in American universities who majored in the sciences and engineering came from Asia. Today, significant numbers are staying in Asia because the schooling there is so improved, and because we have made it harder to study here. And Asian scientists who have been successful here are returning home. None of this is lost on the governments of, say, India and China, which are putting huge sums into modernizing their science infrastructure and universities.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-baltimore29nov29,1,2642518.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

[autorank]

1. Baltimore is right. But he should apply a little science at Cal Tech

This is a great article. The trend described is what happens to a country that has such a crappy educational system and indifferent public that 55% think Gawd put us here fully formed while he created the earth during cosmic commercials. Good point Dave.

Now, Dave, why don't you attribute this problem to the sources: the * administration; the atavistic Xtians; and the Republican party.

And Dave, why did you let your university, Cal Tech, publish a premature, half-baked statistical analysis that allowed the culprits of our scientific decline to gain re-election.

Thanks Dave for nothing.

PS. We'll be sending you video recordings of every speech John Dingell (D), MI, gave this year from C-SPANS archive.

Corporate America controls the media and we get manufactured news.
Corporate America now controls the voting machines and we get manufactured elections.

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/