Earlier quoted context omitted.
What are the foolish maneuvers that China is making?
Up to 40% unemployment or very low employment.
U.S. science is in chaos
871–880 of 1001 posts
Re: U.S. science is in chaos
#872Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not the big Lebowski but this is the "opinion" of the majority of scientific societies in the US as well as watchdog organizations who have long followed science regulatory and spending action. It's not exactly new. We've been through this with the crackdown on climate science during the W Bush administration, with sequestration during the early/mid 2010's, and with the budget shenanigans during the first Trump a…
So that is their, possibly biased, opinion.
Pedantry isn't really an admirable trait.
Re: U.S. science is in chaos
#873Earlier quoted context omitted.
social security and medicare?
That, interest payments, UFC fight night flyovers, ballrooms, wars, tax cuts. I would go as far as to say that the only things getting reduced funding are education and science research, but that’s just a hunch.
you listed some rounding errors
Re: U.S. science is in chaos
#874Earlier quoted context omitted.
That, interest payments, UFC fight night flyovers, ballrooms, wars, tax cuts. I would go as far as to say that the only things getting reduced funding are education and science research, but that’s just a hunch.
The massive increases to military spending would be a big part of it. Have to feed the war machine at all costs apparently.
all military is ~1/6 of ss and medicare. new military expenditures is a rounding error
Re: U.S. science is in chaos
#875Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is forcing prospective academics to pledge alegiance to the American woke left anything _but_ political? DEI statements were nothing more than obligatory loyalty oaths.
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I've never once turned on Fox News, but I have been in elite academia and I'm sorry to say the person you're replying to is dead on.
That's...exactly the point of DEI statements! They are used to filter for "cultural fit", i.e. determine if you fit the political mold or at the very least capable of pretending you are with the most recent shibboleths.
I've literally seen faculty searches cancelled because there were too many white male applicants.
Re: U.S. science is in chaos
#876Earlier quoted context omitted.
Broken window theory to the extreme. If the leader of one of the countries most famous research groups commited research fraud with a slap on the wrist it's not hard to realize how broken it is. I have personally worked with famous researchers and seen a few fudge their work. Acting ignorant of the major flaws implies you haven't been involved, or inside a bubble of research nirvana.
This should apply to politics and industry as well then, in your opinion? Cut all subsidies for industries that commit fraud, research or otherwise, like the oil giants for example? No pardons for cryptocurrency Ceo's like CZ and shutdown cryptocurrency?
I am saying it's one of many examples of which I personally experienced and those I know have also experienced.
And yes it should and does. If an industry does not provide value it naturally fails because it doesn't make money. Academia has no profit by design and now gets to face its own form of regulation for disfunction.
There is no way to even attempt to fix our science base without first cutting much of it. How are we supposed to fix a system while not applying consequences to it? Every US institution is rotting from inside out demanding more money while providing less. The most effective way to begin the process for any of these is to cut money and sort out real value.
This is like US public transport argument. Should we just forever fund disfunctional systems because we are scared of trying to fix them? Our public transport is beyond disfunctional compared to basically any other country on earth.
Since the market cannot correct these systems as what makes industry so effective then you must artificially apply equivalent market forces.
Re: U.S. science is in chaos
#877Earlier quoted context omitted.
US citizen moves to Canada on a CUSMA visa: - 30-50% pay cut - points and lottery based immigration system that penalizes them for each year you age after 30 - frequent unfavorable rule changes - fear of being trapped forever on a temporary visa and eventually sent back to the USA, poorer than their peers who stayed stateside. Canadian citizen moves to us on equivalent CUSMA visa: - huge pay raise - retire back home…
>US citizen moves to Canada on a CUSMA visa: - 30-50% pay cut But what about "free healthcare". Don't americans want socialized healthcare over their despised privatized system? > - points and lottery based immigration system that penalizes them for each year you age after 30 Many countries with socialized healthcare do this. They only want young people and don't want older people who are a risk at becoming a burden…
>Don't americans want socialized healthcare over their despised privatized system?
I haven't lived in either country but as someone who lives in a country with socialised healthcare, it mainly benefits the older generations, as health issues begin to crop up nearer retirement.
If a Canadian spends most of their working life in the U.S. then returns to Canada to raise their kids or to retire then they're getting the best of both worlds.
Re: U.S. science is in chaos
#878Earlier quoted context omitted.
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I've never once turned on Fox News, but I have been in elite academia and I'm sorry to say the person you're replying to is dead on. That's...exactly the point of DEI statements! They are used to filter for "cultural fit", i.e. determine if you fit the political mold or at the very least capable of pretending you are with the most recent shibboleths. I've literally seen faculty searches cancelled because there were t…
> forcing prospective academics to pledge alegiance to the American woke left
This is utter fantasy.
You are making a completely separate argument.
Re: U.S. science is in chaos
#879This will get downvoted to oblivion, but it's not obvious to me this shakeup is a bad thing. Some thoughts: 1. US Spending on R&D has gone up from $50B -> $1T annually, and from $3B -> $115B on purchasing power terms 2. The labs rely on government grants, which are hard to get and typically awarded 'equally' or 'by gatekeepers' 3. There is and have been massive scandals that question academic integrity - reproducibil…
That total R&D spending number is heavily private sector, and is often not what a normal person would consider research, as there is a tax incentive to identify activities as R&D.
Re: U.S. science is in chaos
#880Earlier quoted context omitted.
Look at GDP growth in the US vs EU over the last 10 years or so if you want to talk about innovation. Europe has been stagnating economically and real productivity growth is critical to a modern economy. The large hadron collider does some impressive research, but it doesn't move the sort of innovation in practical machinery and infrastructure that powers a modern economy.
All that GDP growth in the US is advertising. Google isn't some sort of innovator. They sell advertisements. What practical machinery and infrastructure has the US innovated in that time frame?
Google's research team invented the Transformer Architecture at the center of LLM "AI". A huge invention.
California has added roughly 17GW of grid-scale batteries in the last five years. Modern GPU (NVIDIA). Modern electric car (Tesla). Reusable Rockets (SpaceX).
I agree that the US has an "Only Elon-led companies can get things done outside of computers" problem.