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Technology and the Future of U.S. Competitiveness: Nightmares and Dreams

• deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
• ashwinl 16y ago
  extract: Floyd Kvamme, a major VC player in the development of Silicon Valley defines venture capital as “the search for good engineers.” Across Asia today, 21 percent of university graduates are engineers. Across Europe, 12.5 percent of university graduates are engineers. In the United States the number is 4.5 percent. So why hasn’t the United States already been steamrollered? The answer is clear. We have addressed the engineering gap by attracting remarkable talent from around the world to study in the U.S. and have been fortunate that many have stayed and become leaders in industry, academia, and entrepreneurship. Large numbers of such individuals still aspire to stay and contribute to the U.S., but our visa policies increasingly make their path difficult. We must fix this post haste. Furthermore, this gravy train is slowing down. Larger numbers of engineers and entrepreneurs are returning to China, India and elsewhere. Vivek Wadwha’s surveys indicate that their primary reasons for returning are that their professional careers or the companies they wish to found can be built much faster back in Asia or South Asia.