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U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office
431–440 of 459 posts
Re: U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office
#432Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
The NSF buys research . PhD funding is not a gift, it is payment for a job. Buying research from citizens or noncitizens is not meaningfully different.
And is a hard work. USA buys also research partially finished in other countries for cents a dollar when they hire scientists. Harvesting the low hanging fruit without paying a dime for their first 25 years of education. A big percentage of their patents came from discoveries done by foreign researchers. Some of this patents were extremely lucrative for US in the past.
Re: U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office
#433Earlier quoted context omitted.
Damage has been done. I working on de-investing in the USA companies and investing in the EU. USA executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch are a complacent in stupidity. There is no stability in the USA and no longer rule of law.
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I don't think the taxes are a big factor. The most entrepreneurial tech-oriented startup hubs in the US are the highest taxed states.
The regulatory environment does make a difference.
Re: U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office
#434STEM 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. T…
My wife is a PhD in recycled asphalt materials and pioneered the use of such materials in New Mexico.
Under her PhD supervisor she directly worked with the NM department of transportation as a consultant. She did all that as an international student besides her graduate studies while being paid at 50% FTE (+tuition).
It takes between $10m (rural) to $100m (urban) to build a mile of interstate. Recycled materials can reduce the cost by 15-50% while still being equally as sustainable for decades.
Fortunately she is no longer at risk (or minimal risk) job/immigration wise. But others are not as fortunate. Just yesterday I learned that a PhD student from my alma mater was turned back from port of entry and his student visa denied. Reason? He traveled with his University provided laptop without written authorization. I understand that there are embargos and sanctions and trade restrictions, but really?
Re: U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office
#435Earlier quoted context omitted.
China has no free speech and will start flexing its imperial muscle more now that the US is climbing down from the world stage. China is alright if you keep your head down and you're not of the wrong ethnicity, locked up in a work camp and not allowed to have kids, or too openly gay or trans and so on.
Ah, so you do have free speech, I take it? Unless you criticise a certain assassinated far right activist, of course. And don’t even get me started on flexing an imperial muscle. South America and the EU would like a word.
The irony is that you are posting your comment on an American forum.
Re: U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office
#436Earlier quoted context omitted.
China has no free speech and will start flexing its imperial muscle more now that the US is climbing down from the world stage. China is alright if you keep your head down and you're not of the wrong ethnicity, locked up in a work camp and not allowed to have kids, or too openly gay or trans and so on.
The history of civilization over the past 5,000 years proves that China has never been an empire of foreign aggression. On the contrary, look at the 300-year-old modern history of the United States. Take off the tinted glasses of racism and savor it for yourself!
China has literally has been an empire most of it's history. It's like the 3rd biggest country on the planet. Just Tibet itself is huge and was absorbed into China not so long ago.
Re: U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office
#437Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, that's not ok. Many years ago, a friend of mine in the Netherlands had the same job as another guy, earning the same money, my friend being extremely thrifty, the other guy splurging. When they both found themselves out of a job at the same time, my friend got no support from the government as he had savings, while the other guy started getting a very generous allowance. This goes directly against all that is rea…
Correct. If you go over €38.478 in savings, you immediately lose your renters benefit. No taper, just a hard drop-off. You can lose up to €5.000 in renters benefit a year. A legal tax avoidance is to just buy a €1000 TV if you are near the limit. Yes that is as crazy as it sounds but people do it.
This is true in the US too. I know people who are disabled here who can not find a job because if they start making minimum wage they loose all their benefits.
Re: U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
I 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-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 ha…
There was an interesting Freakonomics podcast a few months back that pointed out an interesting divide in how the US and China thinks about its leaders[0]. > China is a country that is run by engineers, while the U.S. is a country run by lawyers. Engineers, he explains, are driven to build while lawyers are driven to argue, and obstruct. Even Trump: > And even though Donald Trump is not a lawyer by any means, I think…
Very interesting way to put it. I would be less generous having lived here most of my whole life.
Re: U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. I think well meaning people in the west are looking for a silver lining and in the process overcomplicating a rather simple issue: the US government is cutting spending everywhere while its electorate demands even deeper cuts. The money has dried up and people are leaving. (One of my best friends was a nuclear medicine phd who left his cancer research lab after covid to work at a VoiP company, so i too have anec…
Sigh. The US is in a weird spot. The electorate does not generally want education and research cut. Republicans here have convinced their base that education and the educated are bad, which has fed their desire to cut academic funding and research at all levels. That is to say, the federal government doesn't have a popular mandate to do any of this. They simply hold all levers of power through a slim majority of the…
And lets not forget that its only 22% of the total amount of people who live here. A large minority of potential voters are disenfranchised and do not vote. The government isnt just without a mandate it is extremely unpopular.
Re: U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office
#440Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, so you do have free speech, I take it? Unless you criticise a certain assassinated far right activist, of course. And don’t even get me started on flexing an imperial muscle. South America and the EU would like a word.
The irony is that you are posting your comment on an American forum.
I don’t see the irony, frankly. I’m pretty sure any journey to the USA would end at the border for everything I have written on this American forum.