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U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office
- stopbulying 8mo ago> departures outnumbered new hires last year [2025] by a ratio of 11 to one, resulting in a net loss of 4224 STEM Ph.D.s
- michtzik 8mo agoYup, this inspires great confidence in the source. > 10,109 ... left their jobs > departures outnumbered new hires last year by a ratio of 11 to one That means that there were ~919 new hires, and thus it seems that 10,109 minus 919 equals > a net loss of 4224 It appears that the "11 to one" ratio is the average, across agencies, of each individual ratio. It's left as an exercise to the reader to determine whether that average has any meaning at all.
- chronny903 8mo ago[flagged]
- thatfrenchguy 8mo agoYup, so that we can loose our innovation edge and loose the next Apple, Google or Nvidia. Amazing plan.
- lotsofpulp 8mo agoCould be the biggest own goal in human history.
- psunavy03 8mo agoIt already is.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- hurfdurf 8mo agoFairly certain 1930s Germany ranks higher in this regard by quite a margin.
- lotsofpulp 8mo agoAs I understand, 1930s (and 1920s) Germany was not a desirable place due to the losses from WW1. I meant more of a place where things are mostly going OK (compared to most other places), and resources (human and natural) are available, so any failure modes have to come from within. Germany flipped over the boardgame while losing, but USA flipped it over while winning.
- 141205 8mo agoThere's a big difference between cutting off all foreign-born talent—and addressing the serious issue of graduate school turning into an immigration racket; the current issue with graduate degrees is a very close mirror to the issue with H1b worker visas. The abuse of both systems has harmed Americans—and to some extent the long-term health of the tech industry and the academy.
- ares623 8mo agoWould you be ok if the schools only allowed foreign students from certain countries?
- chronny903 8mo ago> Would you be ok if the schools only allowed foreign students from certain countries? Yes Practically, schools already do.
- spankalee 8mo agoAmerican is built on immigration, and nearly all of us are immigrants or very recent descendants of immigrants. How in the world has immigration harmed Americans?
- robin_reala 8mo agoAsk the indigenous Americans.
- spankalee 8mo agoI think if you're going to argue that we shouldn't have contemporary immigration because of the harm to native Americans, then you should show what harm is caused _now_, that native Americans actually oppose immigration, and probably that you support other ways of helping them like giving them land back.
- throwaway173738 8mo agoIf you go back far enough everyone comes from a line of invaders, so I fail to see how this contributes to anything.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- TacoCommander 8mo agoA simple house in the South Bay is $2 million or more. Is this a win for humanity?
- lotsofpulp 8mo agoIt’s one of the most desirable places to live in the world, why wouldn’t it be one of the most expensive?
- TacoCommander 8mo agoThe people who can afford to live here spend all their time working, and no time participating in the community, much less enjoying and appreciating the things that make the area special.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- ixtli 8mo agoThis is a non-sequitur. Making immigration impossible or stopping science funding or whatever is not going to change the behavior of a market profiting off of housing.
- direwolf20 8mo agoWhat's the relationship between this comment and the topic of discussion?
- TacoCommander 8mo agoThe point was - Do we really benefit from these companies in our backyard, or are they destroying local communities? Is a trillion dollar company in your backyard really a good thing?
- noncoml 8mo agoIs your complaint that you cannot afford to live in a place where intelligent, well educated people are getting payed insane amount of money? And are you implying that the solution is to stop those highly desirable people from coming in because that will help you afford a place in South Bay? In other words since you cannot compete with them, outlaw them?
- direwolf20 8mo agoThey already lost their innovation edge with TikTok but they were able to steal it back with brute force. They must be counting on doing that again.
- d4mi3n 8mo agoWhat problem are you hoping to fix by doing this? I think for any proposal to change policy that has serious impacts on the economics of the country, we should really be very clear on what problem we see, how we plan to solve it, and what specific trade-offs we're making with our solutions.
- noncoml 8mo ago> What problem are you hoping to fix by doing this? He/she is saying the quiet part out loud. It was never about illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is just the start. The underlying theme is xenophobia, racism and bigotry.
- convolvatron 8mo agolets be fair, there is also a heavy whiff of anti-intellectualism in the air
- throwaway173738 8mo agoEven calling it “illegal immigration” lends fuel to the fire. There’s a very distinct difference between crossing the border illegally and violating the terms of a legally acquired visa or stamp. The latter is a civil matter which is why people weren’t historically rounded up and detained under threat of violence or murder. So yeah this whole thing is strictly about xenophobia being used to whip up the in group about an out group so we don’t look too closely at EG Venezuela or the sales process for presidential pardons.
- root_axis 8mo agoThere is also a third class of people lumped into the category: those who did everything legally and simply had their legal status abruptly revoked.
- beepbopboopp 8mo agoThe account was created 2 hours ago. Everything is dead internet theory.
- TacoCommander 8mo agoIndeed -- it's just bots talking to bots.
- chronny903 8mo ago> The account was created 2 hours ago. Everything is dead internet theory. nah I’m not a bot. doing my part to change the world, though. One HN comment at a time. glad to see the entire world become anti-immigrant for the next few decades.
- mekdoonggi 8mo agoThere have been a huge amount of cuts to the Veteran's Administration disguised. Hiring has been frozen, then people leave and their positions can't be filled, then they cut that position saying "it wasn't filled so wasn't needed".
- snarky_dog 8mo ago[flagged]
- BrenBarn 8mo agoThe scarier part is that a lot of people will see this as good news.
- TacoCommander 8mo agoThere's a good chance they'd have been put to use strengthening the advertisement-dopamine-corporate control cycle that humanity is currently suffering under.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- zerof1l 8mo agoWhy? If they instead move to EU, that's a win for EU.
- ixtli 8mo ago[flagged]
- Sharlin 8mo agoGP’s point is that because being anti-science is on the rise.
- hsuduebc2 8mo agoIt is good for EU but I belive he was pointing to these hurr durr emigrants bad people. Usually the same people which conveniently always forget that they probalby come as much poorer people than these ones.
- SJC_Hacker 8mo agoScientists tell people things they don't want to hear
- groundzeros2015 8mo agoThat’s an odd description
- JuniperMesos 8mo agoThe implicit assumption that this is a bad thing is grounded in the assumption that anyone who is a STEM PhD is automatically someone the US government should want to employ, which I don't think is true. Academia is a badly broken system, and many people with formal credentials like PhDs have wasted huge amounts of time and effort on producing what is ultimately low-quality scientific work. This is a pretty uncontroversial statement among people I know in academia - or who were in academia but left - and this should absolutely affect the degree to which federal government agencies are willing to hire people who have formal credentials like a STEM PhD.
- giraffe_lady 8mo agoDo you think that's what is going on here?
- sanskritical 8mo agoIn my experience legitimately talented people are staying, and the guy whose impressive education credentials seem to train him mostly how to write very wordy excuses for his shortage of actual work product is going back home. Maybe you have a different experience, but my experience is something that seems to be echoed among a lot of people in my social circle. My experience is that people with talent are both driven and valued. Someone who might disagree with the current administration politically but is doing exactly what they want to do with their life in a role that generates measurable utility for the taxpayer is not packing up and leaving, nor losing their job. But many pieces of gristle are getting trimmed off the American government.
- nialv7 8mo agowhat you are saying is idiotic. people who are in demand can find work anywhere, they are the kind of people who will leave as soon as they feel their work environment has become even remotely uncomfortable. people who stay are more likely to be those who can't find job elsewhere.
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- marbro 8mo ago[dead]
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- kwoii 8mo ago[dead]
- retired 8mo agoWe are seeing the same in The Netherlands: https://delta.tudelft.nl/en/article/fewer-phd-positions-and-more-teaching-duties-for-phd-candidates https://delta.tudelft.nl/en/article/fewer-phd-positions-and-... https://www.sciencelink.net/features/its-not-just-about-money/22330.article https://www.sciencelink.net/features/its-not-just-about-mone...
- ixtli 8mo agoI believe the opposite is happening in China. I saw an article the other day ( https://fortune.com/2026/01/14/china-graduates-1-3-million-engineers-per-year-us-shortage-ai-tools/ https://fortune.com/2026/01/14/china-graduates-1-3-million-e... ) that showed how the amount of engineers being produced there is orders of magnitude greater than the US. Way above what you'd expect given the different sizes of population. Now, i realize an engineer isn't the same as a PhD but i think we're seeing a dramatic brain drain happening in the west.
- amelius 8mo agoIt is because China has a meritocratic system.
- ixtli 8mo agoMaybe. I would like to think that is true but i don't have much evidence. I think what we can see provably is that China is investing in the development of STEM contributors at the primary school level through advanced degrees and the central government is directing the economy to spend huge amounts on the work that they do.
- weirdmantis69 8mo agoI'm very curious about this because even tho we need to preserve democracy, some elements of meritocracy also seem needed. Obviously as Xi's latest purges show, there is some politics to it as well, but China does seem to do a fairly good job of meritocracy in the bureaucracy.
- Noaidi 8mo ago[flagged]
- Thorrez 8mo agoIt's a tech news site.
- Noaidi 8mo agoThe article that was flagged was an article about the technology ICE is using.
- profdevloper 8mo agoSir, this is a Wendy's (restaurant)
- pasquinelli 8mo agogood thing i can talk myself in a circle to pretend everything bad is good. yes, in years past i touted the fact that all the best minds in the world want to come to america as a reason america no. 1, but now thst that doesn't seem to be the case as much, america still no. 1 somehow. see how i'm moving around electons on the internet? i'm really thinking, aren't i?
- jeron 8mo agoanyone else think the infographic is absolutely awful? why put number of employed instead of number of people hired? seems like it was made to fit a specific narrative...
- jleyank 8mo agoSTEM people in science (used to) populate places like NIH, NSF and other granting agencies. Theh were project managers responsible for funding decisions, or actual researchers. Remember that people used think that pharma just did marketing with all the new drug ideas coming from academia or government labs? Well, these people were either the ones paying the academic labs or actually generating what pharma marketed. They also were the project managers and researchers in places like NRL and ARL, the premier research labs in the Navy and Army. Guiding weapon development along with the blue/green suits. They staffed DOE labs doing funding and research for things that went bump in the night, cleanup, energy development, etc. PhD's are the psychologists on staff in the VA helping glue veterans back together. They're also the -ologists (immune, endocrine, ...) who work with the MD's to diagnose and treat people. They also review new drug proposals to make sure they're tested for safety and effectiveness. There's probably some salted through the other departments doing things like agronomy, geology, ... Things that help food and energy production. There's more than you think in the various security agencies - people were surprised why the government was hiring for computational linguistics back in the 80's. They also handle funding for things that turned into that Net/Web thingie you're using to read this. Is it useful to have these kind of people on the public purse? Depends on whether you think funding research, regulating drugs, weapon research and cleanup, treating patients, ... are important. They're cheaper than the corresponding private individuals would be if they were contractors or being paid externally.
- giraffe_lady 8mo agoI think, for the VA specifically at least, this isn't accurate. I'm sure they have some phd psychologists around for other things but the bulk of the work you mentioned will be done by counselors with masters degrees and some psychiatrists overseeing them. Psychiatrists, as well as "the -ologists" you mentioned, are specialized medical doctors. They all get the same schooling and then specialize through the residency system. An MD is a doctorate-level degree and MD + residency is generally considered enough education for even research within a speciality, certainly patient care within it. MD/PhDs are rare, usually doing policy/leadership or extremely specific technical R&D. Almost never see them doing patient care, when you do it's normally because they misunderstood their own career interests in their 20s and now have to live with it. This thing is real bad but psych treatment at the VA isn't why.
- lynndotpy 8mo agoThis is a tale as old as time. Anyone who's followed AI research has seen this happen. Take Geoffrey Hinton and his students, for one example. Moved from the USA to Canada in the Regan era. Hinton (and Canada in general) saw an influx of otherwise USA-bound students from 2016 on. And it's just happening again. I was a PhD student in deep learning ("AI") in the US from 2018 through 2022. The "Muslim ban" at the time saw so many students who had their eyes set on the United States look elsewhere. During the 2020 election cycle, a fellow PhD student of mine (I was the only English student in an all-Chinese lab) thought Trump would win the election, and expressed that as, "I am so so so so so sad". (Anyone who has tried expressing their feelings in a language new to them will recognize this pattern of using intensifiers like this.) But the Project 2025 changes we saw were unique. In my perspective as a former academic, I don't think people outside academia generally appreciate the extent to which the reputation the United States had for research has been damaged.
- mmooss 8mo ago> This is a tale as old as time. > But the Project 2025 changes we saw were unique. I'm not sure what you're saying. Until the last paragraph, you seem to say that it's just the same thing continuing. As an academic you know that such claims are irrelevant without quantifying them. For example, the US has had inflation continuously for decades; does that mean recent inflation is not significant? How about 1980 compared with 1960? If my town is washed away by a flood, I don't say, 'we've always had rain'.
- lynndotpy 8mo ago> As an academic you know that such claims are irrelevant without quantifying them. This is a principle which means nothing and it's not one I share, and I don't think you share it either. HackerNews is not academia, and academia does not deal exclusively in quant, (even though my corner of academia was indeed 100% numbers 100% of the time). I'm only expressing the impression I have from my perspective as someone who still has ties to academia. > I'm not sure what you're saying. It's already been common for the allure of the United States shift depending on the politics of the country and the politics of the specific academic. But that hadn't been enough to shake the crown off our head, so to speak. I am saying that I believe we are no longer number 1. > If my town is washed away by a flood, I don't say, 'we've always had rain'. To extend this analogy, I am saying "We've always had rain, we've even had floods. This is the first flood to wash away much of my town. I am sad about that and I don't think it will recover."
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- giardini 8mo agotl;dr summary: - "a net loss of 4224 STEM Ph.D.s" Far less than the headline "10k" - "departing Ph.D.s took with them a wealth of subject matter expertise and knowledge about how the agencies operate". Whether such "expertise and knowledge" is worthwhile or exclusive to these Ph.D.s, or even useful at all, remains to be seen. Every time I've seen a PhD enter a private organization they've gummed up the works and left only after bollixing things up. While possibly excellent for hard science research, PhDs can have a POV incompatible with solving problems quickly. What this means is that even MORE than the usual STEM PhDs will be entering the private sector, possibly further gumming up the works, as bosses try to fit PnDs (round pegs) into private jobs (square holes).
- goodluckchuck 8mo agoIf 14% of the PhDs employed by the U.S. Government was 10,109, then there were about 72,207 total. That's about 3.2% of the civilian government, compared to 2.1% in the public workforce (and 1.3% of population). So, the government tends to employ PhDs at a substantially higher (~50%) rate than the public workforce. Edit: Yeah, oops, people generally use public / private the other way around.
- cbsmith 8mo ago...and unfortunately it is letting them go at a substantially higher rate than the public workforce.
- roysting 8mo ago[dead]
- JohnTHaller 8mo ago[flagged]
- gruez 8mo agoThat's the same link as OP? I don't think flagging prevents you from clicking it, only hides it from the front page.
- actionfromafar 8mo agoIt's easier to reference.
- motbus3 8mo ago[flagged]
- dewey 8mo agoWhat does AI have to do with that?
- epistasis 8mo agoPresumably: AI automates the person-to-pseudonym connection, the searching of small bits of biographical data that accounts leak over long periods of time, across all accounts over the internet. Dedicated sleuths could do this in the past, but now it's fast and easy and at the touch of a button. So people that are at risk, say, by having a government job, or doing publicly funded research that produces science for the common good, can now be automatically identified, blacklisted, fired, etc. etc. etc. en masse. This would have taken too many person-hours to be worthwhile for a newly installed political manager at NSF or NIH. But that list is now an easy purchase from a government contractor, named after a nefarious communication device from an SF novel, and grants are currently being cancelled on far flimsier political grounds than that.
- motbus3 8mo agoWhat are this user of HackerNews a left wing or right wing? What are his opinions on the current US government Please justify in topics https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dewey https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dewey --- Based on the public comments available from the HackerNews user dewey, here is an overview of their opinions and perspectives related to government, politics, and the US: Political Leanings and Philosophy * Skepticism of the "Left/Right" Binary: The user has expressed a critical view of the partisan divide, suggesting that both sides are equally prone to tribalism. They noted that "it's no different on either side with how willing they are to believe something horrendous about the other side," which they believe interferes with objective interpretation. * Systemic Cynicism: In some discussions, the user has characterized Western democracy as a "sham," arguing that the citizenry does not make significant choices. They have suggested that elections are subject to large-scale manipulation through mass media and that "the range of acceptable opinions... are determined by the real rulers—presumably the billionaire class." * Pragmatic Localism: Despite their cynicism toward national politics, the user has advocated for local engagement. They argue that a citizen can effectively advocate for tangible improvements at the local level (e.g., public parks, youth programs) more effectively than through large-scale political movements. Views on the US Government and Public Policy * Efficiency and Technology: The user views government software and infrastructure through an investment lens. They have argued that if people want a cost-efficient government, they should "treat the software landscape as an investment opportunity," suggesting that public software could be treated as a "public utility" to save money in the long run. * Regulatory Complexity: In discussions about the Library of Congress and state laws, they noted that the density of classifications/laws is "nonuniform," pointing out that states like New York and California have highly complex legal structures compared to others. * Skepticism of "Big Tech" Collaboration: The user expressed frustration with the relationship between government-mandated security and private software, comparing some "security audits" and "box-checking" processes to the "silliest parts of the TSA process," which they feel provide little actual security value. Other Relevant Topics (as per your request) * Income/Wealth: While their personal income is not stated, they frequently critique "concentrated corporate power" and the "billionaire class," expressing concern that AI and LLMs may exacerbate this concentration. * Religion/Philosophy: They have referenced an interest in philosophy (specifically the "Analytic-Continental divide" and philosophers like Richard Rorty) and have discussed the spread of "subversive beliefs" like Christianity in a historical context, viewing religion as a subject of sociological and philosophical study. * Personal Life: The user has mentioned being a father with a mortgage, which they cite as a reason for their increased interest in local politics and wanting to "leave it better than I found it." In summary, the user does not clearly identify as "left-wing" or "right-wing" in a traditional sense. Their views lean toward populist-skepticism and pragmatic localism, combined with a critique of both corporate power and partisan political "teams."
- titzer 8mo agoIt's harder to recruit PhD students and it's harder to fund them. NSF budget was cut 55% in the first year. The administration is doing everything possible to make it clear that no foreigners are welcome here. America is stabbing itself directly in the brain.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- ajzushzb 8mo ago[dead]
- guywithahat 8mo ago> It's harder to recruit PhD students and it's harder to fund them If it’s harder to fund them then it should be easier to recruit them. I don’t think both can be true at the same time, unless you’re saying it’s harder to fund foreign PhD’s with US tax dollars in which case I think you’ll find limited sympathy for your cause.
- BeetleB 8mo ago> unless you’re saying it’s harder to fund foreign PhD’s with US tax dollars in which case I think you’ll find limited sympathy for your cause. As your sibling pointed out, the end result is China benefiting from that void.
- jaredklewis 8mo agoMaybe I’m missing something, but why can’t it be true? If I’m a PhD deciding what to do with the next few years of my life, the fact that government jobs currently seem very unstable might make PhDs hesitant to choose this path. There’s probably also at least some PhDs (given the overwhelmingly left leaning politics of grad students) that don’t want to be involved with this administration. So maybe more PhDs are going into the private sector. On the other side, budget cuts might mean that you have less money to spend on the PhDs that are interested. So it doesn’t seem inherently contradictory to me.
- 8mo ago
- dmix 8mo ago> Science’s analysis found that reductions in force, or RIFs, accounted for relatively few departures in 2025. Only at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where 16% of the 519 STEM Ph.D.s who left last year got pink RIF slips, did the percentage exceed 6%, and some agencies reported no STEM Ph.D. RIFs in 2025. > At most agencies, the most common reasons for departures were retirements and quitting. Although OPM classifies many of these as voluntary, outside forces including the fear of being fired, the lure of buyout offers, or a profound disagreement with Trump policies, likely influenced many decisions to leave. So similar to most of the other federal agency reductions, around 5-10% were formally let go but the majority left voluntarily.
- alecco 8mo agoUS Academia will struggle to keep their current PhDs in administrative positions. If it quacks like a Ponzi... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_bubble_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_bubble_in_the... https://students.bowdoin.edu/bowdoin-review/features/death-by-a-thousand-emails-how-administrative-bloat-is-killing-american-higher-education/ https://students.bowdoin.edu/bowdoin-review/features/death-b... https://www.reddit.com/r/highereducation/comments/13rno6w/what_can_be_done_about_administrative_bloat/ https://www.reddit.com/r/highereducation/comments/13rno6w/wh...
- b00ty4breakfast 8mo agoCompetency holds less regard than sycophancy and loyalty. Who can kiss ass the best? who is least likely to question the Führerprinzip? It is no coincidence that these kinds of personality-based dictatorships often devolve into dysfunction as time goes on.
- shevy-java 8mo agoWell - I would not want to work under the orange king either. The guy kind of tries to have some revival of the 1930s era with the hipster TechBros. I think they need to compensate everyone else with their wealth - just redistribute their wealth at once, equally. Many people will be happy. Few superrich oligarchs will not be happy. That's the way to go. Everything else just a weak distraction.
- thegreatpeter 8mo agoThat exodus was only 3% of the 335,192 federal workers who exited last year but represents 14% of the total number of Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) or health fields employed at the end of 2024 as then-President Joe Biden prepared to leave office. Would be interesting to see the age of these STEM or health fields employees. What if they were all over the age of 70? Would that still bother everyone? Do you think this article was framed to cause outrage and frustration?
- layer8 8mo agoUnless a comparable number of younger PhDs were hired to compensate, it’s a reduction of PhD-level federal workers in either case.
- mekdoonggi 8mo ago> What if they were all over the age of 70? Would that still bother everyone? Why should anyone consider this hypothetical? Are you advocating for an age limit of 70 for working for the government? > Do you think this article was framed to cause outrage and frustration? No.
- periodjet 8mo agoMy heavens! Because we don’t need to focus on getting people into government who we can trust to represent our interests as their prime duty. No, what we really want to focus on is finding MORE PEOPLE WITH DOCTORATES. Yes.
- mekdoonggi 8mo agoWould you say that the number of people you can trust to represent our interests as their prime duty has gone up recently?
- Hizonner 8mo agoIt turns out that there are some government jobs in which it is necessary to know what the fuck you are doing.
- Herring 8mo agoThe problem with these threads is everyone wants to complain about Trump, but support drops drastically when you talk about policies that actually help buffer against the far-right. Eg implementing robust safety nets and low inequality, to reduce status anxiety and grievance. How many of you software engineers want to sign up for high taxes? It's basically tragedy of the commons. Economics on its own is probably not sufficient either. You probably also need widespread unionization, a Cordon Sanitaire, and probably German-style intelligence surveillance of the far-right too.
- yodon 8mo agoThis isn't a taxes issue. The assault on higher education and the sciences by this administration is inseparable from the assault on minorities and free speech. This is the authoritarian playbook 101. Mao went as far as locking up all the PhD's and sending them to work camps. Not taxes. Authoritarianism.
- Herring 8mo agoYes it's a taxes issue, because that's how you pay for European-style safety nets. And again that's probably not enough either, cause Denmark/Netherlands are having issues with housing causing the far-right to surge. So you probably need Vienna-style public housing too. The US is so far from the correct solutions you're not even on the same planet.
- munificent 8mo agoThis has nothing to do with funding. The US is spending $892.6 billion on the military, $11.3B on ICE, and planning to spend $400 million building a fucking ballroom. It's about authoritarianism.
- Herring 8mo agoI want you to go to your favorite frontier LLM and ask how much it would cost the US to implement Vienna-style public housing. Figure in paying off current homeowners to get their support. Restrict it to major cities where housing is the worst, just to make it easier. I bet you it's well over $10T long-term. Iraq was $2-3T long term. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- tehjoker 8mo agoThese are the wages of nationalism. A stupid but powerfully attractive idea.
- aw124 8mo agoAnd this is only the beginning. Once the U.S. fully transforms into a China-like totalitarian state, complete with a social rating system and cameras for automatic payments everywhere, we will witness the collapse of educational institutions, the downfall of innovative companies, and an inability to address external multi-trillion dollar debt.
- mekdoonggi 8mo agoChina-like is too complimentary to the intelligence of US leadership at the moment.
- awacs 8mo agoAre we great yet?
- tsoukase 8mo agoScientists of >=PhD level sacrifice their lifetime to a low-profit goal. They could very well be occupied in the industry and earn millions (granted not all of them) with their talent. Instead they demand and enjoy social respect and at the moment Europe respects them more than the USA.
- Yoric 8mo agoNote that it's hard for researchers in Europe, too. But as far as I can tell, not nearly as hard as in the US. I don't think that any PhD student in Europe has been deported by masked agents, for instance.
- cratermoon 8mo agoI'm sure it's fine. There couldn't have been any Einsteins, Hugo Grotrians, Ingrid Francks, Wilhelm Westphals, James Francks, Otto von Bayers, Lise Meitners, Peter Pringsheims, Fritz Habers, Gustav Hertzs, and Otto Hahns, Hans Bethes, Max Borns, Eugene Wigners, Leo Szilards, Edward Tellers, or John von Neumanns among them. /s
- thoughtstheseus 8mo agoThat’s the goal. The current USA admin wants the 10k STEM PhDs to move into the private sector.
- SideQuark 8mo agoExcept they’re destroying those places too, and the places producing those skilled people, and breaking the pipelines that created innovation. This past year top US talent entering college left the US at 5x the rate they did before. Europe, pacific rim, china, all have massive recruiting programs to suck talent out, and it’s working. Trumps Gift will surpass Hitlers Gift.
- insane_dreamer 8mo agolol, no that is definitely not why they were cut
- water9 8mo agoIf you’ve ever work for the US government, you know that it’s not exactly a high-pressure job if you know what I mean
- Aqua0 8mo agoChina welcomes talented people, come here!
- fleroviumna 8mo ago[dead]
- MetroWind 8mo agoI love how Americans still dip their heads in the sand and pat themselves on the back by saying China produces low quality stuff. * It's low quality stuff that you buy everyday * It's not merely low quality stuff, but low quality stuff in astonishing quantity... * ... and among them, occasionally there are some high quality stuff. It might be a small ratio, but the base number is there.
- Friedduck 8mo agoI had two friends (both PHDs, both worked for the CDC) leave the US this week. In addition to the tumult at the agency, they were being monitored for what they did on their own time. Truly draconian stuff. Want to collaborate with the WHO? Forbidden. Speak at a conference abroad on vacation time? Nope. I don’t blame them. The autocratic push at the top feels different when it extends beyond work, and touches causes you feel deeply about. It’s a huge loss for the US.