USA to Pass Science Crown to China

instantgames writes "According to a working paper of the National Bureau of Economic Research, rapid development of a science and technology base by populous Asian countries soon may threaten the economic position of the United States. Not only is the U.S. losing ground in high technology exports, but its very capacity to develop new technologies is declining rapidly with respect to the rest of the world. According to Richard Freeman, the paper's author, the sheer population of Asian countries may allow them to train more scientists and engineers than the U.S. while devoting a smaller share of their economy to science and technology." From the article: "The phenomenal growth of China's industrial base has been widely publicized, but Freeman focuses on what is perhaps the more important long-term indicator of a nation's prosperity - its re-investment in science and technology education. "

What do you expect?

[donleyp]

From an elementary school's billboard in my neighborhood: "Adequate yearly progress, once again!"

This is what we get for handing our children's education over to the government.

Moderators, please don't rate this post as "Funny", because it isn't.

The $5 comment.

[Anonymous Coward]

So who here spent $5 for the PDF before commenting?

Re:Bill Gates on US Education

[snorklewacker]

> We as a nation have been able to attract great minds with promises of "vast tracks of land", but that is about it.

sigh

Bah....

[Kenja]

Bah, what has science ever done for us?

(queue monty python and the life of brian style response vs the romans)

Re:The Real Chinese Growth

[bahwi]

Haha, I always said the same thing about Japan and China, as you can trace most any anime back to some Chinese legend. Of course there are exceptions, but without China's old legends, Japan's anime industry would be about 15% the size it is now.

Not all bad

[NineNine]

I say that it's not all bad. What we lose in scientific-ness, we more than make up for with our awesome Jesus-osity! We may be dumber, but we're Holier!

RMS changed his name?

[The_Wilschon]

According to Richard Freeman, the paper's author,

I should have seen this coming. He's always been so radical about the Free Software movement, I guess he viewed his name as one more marketing opportunity.

Re:Bill Gates on US Education

[spun]

Listen, lad. I've built this education system up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. The king said I was daft to build a school in a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. An' that's what your gonna get, lad -- the strongest school in these islands.

DO not compare Bush to Hitler

[Anonymous Coward]

Hitler was an excellent public speaker.

haythuns!

[flacco]

if jaysus wanted us to be the leeders in th devul majick den he woulda made us the leedres! if jaysus wnts thu chinamen to be the devyl majick peeple then they will be the devyl majik peepul! but ehyt will not be leedres in nuthin becuase they got the devyl eyes an maybe ecept the majik but it will not hep thm anyways!

now git to yer bible an stop tawkin abot debvul majick! aint no need to be aksin abut the majic until jaysus is in yr hert and hee tells you to look at the majick!

Conservative!=fundy nut case

[HornWumpus]

Do you puritans ever stop and take stock of how many "hard" scientists and engineers are among your rank? You know, the people that design and build shit instead of just talking about it? It's no wonder why we are losing this race. Too many of you are working to discover a scientific theory where none exists and not thinking about more practical things.

Not that science matters to you, the rapture is coming anyhow.

Re:Every empire has its end

[Anonymous Coward]

Nonesense. The success of the US is directly related to it's Christian foundations. Our faith is what has led to our success. Our problems over the last few decades (abortion, the perverted gay agenda, etc.) are due to our straying from the true path as laid out in the Bible.

In other words, though you intellectually challanged leftists can't understand it, our God, being the one true God, will ensure our success as long as we live our lives according to His plans.

The empires that came before us no doubt strayed from the teachings of God, thus they lost their way. 9/11 would never have happened if the US were truly a Christian nation - our God would not have allowed it.

Re:Bill Gates on US Education

[rajafarian]

... we were merely expressing other views on origins of life.

How many? Two?

Re:Emulation, not innovation

[Dire Bonobo]

> As a child in the 1050's, I heard nothing but disparaging comments
> about cheapo Japanese copies.

Really? I would have thought you'd have heard all about those darn Normans always threatening to invade, and those pesky Vikings always raiding.

Glad to see you didn't fall for the whole "people died young in the middle ages" meme, though. ;)

Ouch, crap!

[theolein]

Much of the EU really is socialist with Germany coming to mind in particular, featuring strong central government planning of the economy and extensive social safety nets, workers' unions with real power truly representing their membership, and so on.

Uhm, what central planning of the economy???????. Your assumption is more or less what I meant, I think. There is no centrally planned economy in the EU. In fact it's one of the rules of the EU to have free markets. If you're talking about the agricultural subsidies, then I would point out The US' farm subsidies in response. It has nothing to do with centrally planned economies.

Shit, and there I hoped to make a point.

Re:Bill Gates on US Education

[ultranova]

If you'd been smart, you'd dug trenches to drain the swamp and built the school on a corner of the resulting dry land and sold, rented or farmed the rest for profit. But then again, I guess you didn't have education back then :).