U.S. tech leadership to go way of 2004 Dream Team?

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inflation to 1996 dollars."

The report also recommends immigration changes. Individuals born in other countries represent one of every five scientists and engineers in the United States, accounting for more than a million workers, according to the study. Among other things, AEA calls for all foreign master's and Ph.D. students in the United States to receive "green cards," or permanent residency status.

Late last year, President Bush signed into law an exemption to the annual cap of H-1B guest worker visas for up to 20,000 foreigners earning graduate degrees at U.S. schools.

AEA also argues for improving the U.S. education system, making the R&D tax credit permanent, and creating a tax credit for training workers. "Companies often lack incentives to invest in educating and retraining workers, as they risk losing that return on investment if the worker subsequently leaves the firm," the report says. "By providing human capital investment tax credits, the U.S. government can encourage companies to retrain workers by reducing or eliminating out-of-pocket costs."

Besides drawing an analogy between the U.S. economy and the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team, AEA suggests that the country is like the "proverbial frog in the pot of water" when it comes to technological leadership, oblivious to a slowly building catastrophe.

"In our report, we analyze a number of competitiveness factors that, when taken in isolation, as they so often are, would not necessarily constitute a crisis," AEA President William Archey said in a statement. "But the interrelationship--the cumulative effect of these trends--makes the more compelling argument that the status quo is unsustainable."

[Dachi]

Well said

"Among other things, AEA calls for all foreign master's and Ph.D. students in the United States to receive "green cards," or permanent residency status."

We refuse to remove uneducated Mexicans and Cubans with criminal records from this country, yet scientists, scholars, and law abiding foreigners have such a difficult time being granted the right to live in the US?

[aroyce]

Students following the money

It's well and good to talk about how the United States "needs" engineers, but business has decided that these people are not particularly worthwhile. Pay and opportunities for advancement determine the worth of a career. I have all the technical degrees, licenses, experience, etc. but I work for a Mortgage company - they pay better. So much for science. People go where the money is and it is no longer in the sciences.

[Al Johnsons]

go where the money is

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What about the massive layoffs?

Hidden in the statistics are the economic and technological losses due to all the layoffs from the continuing recession. I and many of my middle aged cohorts with massive experience and education have been prematurely thrown on the technological garbage heap. If you calculate in the billions of dollars of losses to the resulting loss of income, the economic factors become apparent. There are hundreds of thousands of under-employed or unemployed highly trained people still out there. There is no lack of native talent and the resulting lowereing of expectations by younger people observing what has happened to the work-force, then there is no mystery why there is such a lack of enthusiasm for getting degrees in the computing field.