And capitalism revolves around comparative advantage. Because American professionals expect higher salaries than their peers in most other countries, they can

And capitalism revolves around comparative advantage. Because American professionals expect higher salaries than their peers in most other countries, they can only be competitive with sufficient institutional or educational advantages. If American universities and research institutes no longer have those advantages, they start losing their competitiveness. Either their productivity suffers, because they have to pay more for the same research output, or they can't attract domestic talent, because the opportunity cost of going to the academia is higher in the US than elsewhere. Relying permanently on foreign talent may work, if the rest of the society accepts it. Research is an activity dominated by labor costs. Capitalism favors doing such activities in the cheapest places where they can be done well enough.