Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Brain Drain Across the United States

jec.senate.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 213 posts

Re: Brain Drain Across the United States

#61

Post by ausbah »

defen wrote: post #51

Now, consider the "meta-brain-drain" of 1) increased assortative mating (people are increasingly more likely to marry someone of similar educational and professional achievement) and 2) college-educated women delaying childbirth and having fewer children than non-college-educated women. The net result is that more educated people tend to have fewer children than the less educated. If we assume educational attainment…

That sounds exactly like the plot of "Idiocracy" - people who aren't 'smart' are having more children then those who are 'smart' so society is ruined. How about trying to make education and other opportunities more accessible to the less educated instead of bashing them for having a couple more kids?

Re: Brain Drain Across the United States

#62

Post by greeneggs »

btrettel wrote: post #40
crazygringo wrote: post #26

Interesting... I've only ever heard of brain drain used in an international context. Which is where the US comes out as a winner, as we're gaining from all the highly educated Chinese and Indians who come here to work and start companies. I actually find the concept rather odd to use domestically, because it's generally used to show a contrast between a country paying for your college education, and then you reaping…

Tuition for in-state residents is often subsidized and can be considerably lower than tuition for residents of other US states.

For example, in California, UC tuition is ~$14,000/year and the state subsidizes $12,098/year per student.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/08/21/report-asks-w...

Re: Brain Drain Across the United States

#63

Post by SantalBlush »

refurb wrote: post #45
lotsofpulp wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sick leave, parental leave, legal marijuana, assisted suicide, non compete bans, better environmental protections, pro choice, are all desirable to the young people I know and red states go the other way on those policies.

Huh! The fastest growing states in 2018 were: Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Florida and Washington.[1] [1] https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/estimate...

That's percentage growth, not numeric growth. So while their population increase was largely due to national migration, those migration numbers didn't need to be very high because they don't have huge populations (except Florida).

Re: Brain Drain Across the United States

#64

Post by taurath »

Rafuino wrote: post #27
taurath wrote: post #11

Brain drain within the US is just as frequently about cultural rather than economic issues. The culture wars the republicans have been running on since the 80s turns off thoughtful people - anti-intellectualism is killing these states. That said, it’s incredibly underserved and there’s tons of very capable and friendly people. Edit: maybe I didn’t get the intended point across - I’d ask though, how many people do you…

I think it's partially cultural and partially economic. I left my home state (which scored poorly in this Senate report) because I couldn't get a great education in the state system, nor were there any prospects for the kinds of careers I was interested in (and there still aren't today). I love visiting where I grew up, and most of my family is still there, but the jobs I want are not and will not be there for any fo…

I meant to just point it out as a potential other major factor - completely left out of the report because it’s from the republican majority’s office.

Re: Brain Drain Across the United States

#65

Post by michelpp »

toasterlovin wrote: post #57
michelpp wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know where the downvotes are coming from, I have no concern about karma. That's his voting record, and links to his webpage, and the words are his. I said nothing negative about the man. All I asked is that people read it. You think this brain drain article with his face on it is logically disconnected from his politics?

Speaking frankly, I don’t see what anything that you posted has to do with brain drain. All you’re doing is pointing out unrelated things which you think makes the senator look bad.

In short order the Supreme Court will decide on whether or not to include a citizenship question on the upcoming census.

The result of including the question will sow fear in non-citizens, fully entitled to be counted (the census requires "whole persons", not just citizens) and is projected to cause an undercount of many, many millions of people in "brain gain" states.

This will directly effect the amount of federal money, by many billions of dollars, that goes to states for education. You think this article is somehow disconnected from that? That maybe some of the senators that sit on the Joint Economic Committee might have something to gain from this?

This is not about bad choroplethy and bogus metrics, this is American politics.

Re: Brain Drain Across the United States

#67

Post by burlesona »

taurath wrote: post #11

Brain drain within the US is just as frequently about cultural rather than economic issues. The culture wars the republicans have been running on since the 80s turns off thoughtful people - anti-intellectualism is killing these states. That said, it’s incredibly underserved and there’s tons of very capable and friendly people. Edit: maybe I didn’t get the intended point across - I’d ask though, how many people do you…

I'm not sure the map backs up what you're saying.

If you look at the 2017 Net Brain Drain it shows the following top gainers: - Texas - Virginia - Illinois - Maryland - Colorado - California - New Jersey - New York - Massachussets

Georgia and North Carolina also showed strong gains (along with many other states). That may be blue-leaning but it's not a landslide.

It's more like people are concentrating in the biggest cities generally, and to the degree that there's a blue-shift its that states dominated by their urban population lean democrat and states dominated by a rural population lean republican, so the cultural change follows the demographic shifts rather than driving them.

Re: Brain Drain Across the United States

#68

Post by cableshaft »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #13
threatofrain wrote: post #3

I'm sure the parents want the kids getting out of brain-drain regions too. Why ought kids stay?

By that logic, we should all be aspiring to live in Upper E. side Manhatten, because, 'why stay anywhere else'. Education is only one factor, there are many others. FYI - 'Worker mobility' in the US is actually declining, and has been for some time. This could possibly mean that regular workers are moving around less, relative to educated one's. It also could mean as communications and transportation become easier, t…

I was surprised to see Illinois still look like it's attracting people from the graph (I'm not entirely sure, it's a little hard to understand which direction it's going from their visual and labeling choices). Illinois has more people leaving the state than coming into the state since at least 2014, and our tax burden is the highest in the country.

https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/population-loss-in-illi...

https://www.illinoispolicy.org/study-illinois-home-to-highes...

Re: Brain Drain Across the United States

#69

Post by opportune »

uneasy-sausage wrote: post #66

So Ive got to ask, and I've failed to find answer through research for this question, where the hell are all the educated young people at? I'm 28 and relocated to Tampa Bay and I have no idea where my cohorts are here or in this state.

There are tons in the Bay Area, Seattle, Dc area, NYC area, Chicago, and Boston. Not so sure about Tampa though it’s up there on my list of nice retirement destinations

Re: Brain Drain Across the United States

#70

Post by Mirioron »

T-A wrote: post #35
Mirioron wrote: post #9

Imagine what the effect of this is in the EU, where average income can differ up to 5-10 times between the poor and rich countries. Freedom of movement means they can still work in any of the EU countries.

That seems like an exaggeration. Sorting on the net PPP column at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_... the lowest EU member is Bulgaria (1475), the highest is Luxembourg (3843); that's a factor 2.6. The EU also has much larger cultural barriers to movement than the US (different languages, just to mention the most obvious one).

Just take a look at Bulgaria's population graph: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Bulgaria#/me...

I very much question the validity of PPP in this case. Things are no doubt cheaper in Bulgaria, but I'm fairly certain that electronics, cars etc are going to cost roughly the same, because there's a free flow of goods. People just make do with less.

Also keep in mind that people might move abroad to work there, but still come back home once in a while. The effect on the economy is still going to be similar. The median equivalised net income is just too different inside the EU: http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=ilc_...

Post reply on HN