The skepticism voiced in the article about Chinese engineering capabilities is partially justified—for the moment. But momentum is what the Chinese have in abundance. Their engineering capabilities are advancing rapidly but there is more than that at work. Advanced nations are pouring capital and intellectual capital into China to take advantage of its low cost labor. Learning by doing accompanies foreign investment and the Chinese are learning rapidly.

And don’t entirely discount those Chinese engineers. I read English language translations of Chinese power industry engineers. The research quality shown in their technical papers is impressive.

We made the mistake post-Korean war of repeatedly downplaying Japanese competitive powers. Let’s not repeat the mistake with the Chinese. Now is the time to vastly strengthen the K-12 math, science, physics, engineering, and economics content. Without a change in K-12 content prioritization, we risk relying even more than now on China and India for our engineering. We will suffer economically if that occurs.

Marvinlee, at 12:45 pm EST on March 3, 2006

National Security Requires Corporate Welfare?

National Security Requires Corporate Welfare?

As corporate profits have zoomed in recent years and CEO salaries skyrocketed, more jobs have been exported to cheap foreign labor markets. Nonetheless, corporations have enjoyed bigger tax breaks, thus contributing a dwindling percentage of federal and state tax revenues. One might think these giveaways would be incentives enough to energize corporations toward innovation and development, but these same corporations have, instead, reduced their spending for R&D.

Is there a problem looming as a result of these policies? You bet.

The solution? Easy. Create a panic based on a manufactured crisis, and get the US Government to come to the rescue. This is exactly the tack taken by the new blue blooded, er, blue ribbon Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century. Their hot-off-the-press scare document is breathlessly entitled Rising Above The Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future.

The gathering storm, it seems, will come in the form of foreign competition for the control of world markets. Here is quote from the report that succinctly boils down the problem:

Civilization is on the brink of a new industrial order. The big winners in the increasingly fierce global scramble for supremacy will not be those who simply make commodities faster and cheaper than the competition. They will be those who develop talent, techniques and tools so advanced that there is no competition (p. 1-3).

The reason we don’t have that talent? Well, of course—it is the fault of the schools. Here are some of the indicators of the problem from the report summary:

� For the cost of one chemist or one engineer in the United States, a company can hire about five chemists in China or 11 engineers in India.

� Last year chemical companies shuttered 70 facilities in the United States and have tagged 40 more for closure. Of 120 chemical plants being built around the world with price tags of $1 billion or more, one is in the United States and 50 are in China.

� Last year more than 600,000 engineers graduated from institutions of higher education in China. In India, the figure was 350,000. In America, it was about 70,000.

� In 2001 U.S. industry spent more on tort litigation than on research and development.

Without a major push to strengthen the foundations of America’s competitiveness, the United States could soon lose its privileged position. The ultimate goal is to create new, high-quality jobs for all citizens by developing new industries that stem from the ideas of exceptional scientists and engineers.

The solution? More exceptional science majors and engineers. Lots of them. The report proposes scholarships to put 25,000 more science and engineering majors into the pipeline each year.

Do we need that many more engineers and scientists, especially when corporations prefer to hire the cheap ones from abroad? Here is what the U. S. Government’s Occupational Outlook Handbook 2004-05 says about the job outlook for engineers:

Overall engineering employment is expected to grow more slowly than the average for all occupations over the 2002-12 period. Engineers tend to be concentrated in slow-growing manufacturing industries, a factor which tends to hold down their employment growth. Also, many employers are increasing their use of engineering services performed in other countries. Despite this, overall job opportunities in engineering are expected to be good because the number of engineering graduates should be in rough balance with the number of job openings over this period. Expected changes in employment and, thus, job opportunities vary by specialty. Projections range from a decline in employment of mining and geological engineers, petroleum engineers, and nuclear engineers to much faster than average growth among environmental engineers.

And here is what the OOH says about the future prospects for the biological scientists:

Despite projected as fast as the average job growth for biological scientists over the 2002-12 period, doctoral degree holders can expect to face competition for basic research positions. The Federal Government funds much basic research and development, including many areas of medical research that relate to biological science. Recent budget increases at the National Institutes of Health have led to large increases in Federal basic research and development expenditures, with research grants growing both in number and in dollar amount. At the same time, the number of newly trained scientists has continued to increase at least as fast as available research funds, so both new and established scientists have experienced difficulty winning and renewing research grants. Currently, about 1 in 3 grant proposals are approved for long-term research projects. If the number of advanced degrees awarded continues to grow, as seems likely based on enrollment trends, this competitive situation will persist. Additionally, applied research positions in private industry may become more difficult to obtain if increasing numbers of scientists seek jobs in private industry because of the competitive job market for independent research positions in universities and for college and university faculty.

What to do, what to do about this non-problem!? Could it be the patriotic solution to create an oversupply of engineers and scientists so that salaries can be driven down to compete with the foreign labor markets, thus creating our own homegrown Third-World labor force?

Here is a summary of the recommendation by the Committee. Notice that all of them refer to government interventions ($$), rather than corporate responsibilities. Policymakers should give us more, and we will invest less. Count the times you read “policymakers should":

Ten Thousand Teachers, Ten Million Minds

Increase America’s talent pool by vastly improving K-12 mathematics and science education.

� Among the recommended implementation steps is the creation of a merit-based scholarship program to attract 10,000 exceptional students to math and science teaching careers each year. Four-year scholarships, worth up to $20,000 annually, should be designed to help some of the nation’s top students obtain bachelor’s degrees in physical or life sciences, engineering, or mathematics — with concurrent certification as K-12 math and science teachers. After graduation, they would be required to work for at least five years in public schools. Participants who teach in disadvantaged inner-city or rural areas would receive a $10,000 annual bonus. Each of the 10,000 teachers would serve about 1,000 students over the course of a teaching career, having an impact on 10 million minds, the report says.

Sowing the Seeds

Sustain and strengthen the nation’s commitment to long-term basic research.

� Policy-makers should increase the national investment in basic research by 10 percent each year over the next seven years. Special attention should be paid to the physical sciences, engineering, mathematics, and information sciences, and to basic research funding for the U.S. Department of Defense, the report says.

� Policy-makers also should establish within the U.S. Department of Energy an organization called the Advanced Research Project Agency — Energy (ARPA-E) that reports to the undersecretary for science and sponsors “out-of-the-box” energy research to meet the nation’s long-term energy challenges.

� Authorities should make 200 new research grants annually — worth $500,000 each, payable over five years — to the nation’s most outstanding early-career researchers.

Best and Brightest

Develop, recruit, and retain top students, scientists, and engineers from both the United States and abroad. The United States should be considered the most attractive setting in the world to study and conduct research, the report says.

� Each year, policy-makers should provide 25,000 new, competitive four-year undergraduate scholarships and 5,000 new graduate fellowships to U.S. citizens enrolled in physical science, life science, engineering, and mathematics programs at U.S. colleges and universities.

� Policy-makers should provide a one-year automatic visa extension that allows international students to remain in the United States to seek employment if they have received doctorates or the equivalent in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or other fields of national need from qualified U.S. institutions. If these students then receive job offers from employers that are based in the United States and pass a security screening test, they should automatically get work permits and expedited residence status. If they cannot obtain employment within one year, their visas should expire.

Incentives for Innovation

Ensure that the United States is the premier place in the world for innovation. This can be accomplished by actions such as modernizing the U.S. patent system, realigning tax policies to encourage innovation, and ensuring affordable broadband Internet access, the report says.

� Policy-makers should provide tax incentives for innovation that is based in the United States. The Council of Economic Advisers and the Congressional Budget Office should conduct a comprehensive analysis to examine how the United States compares with other nations as a location for innovation and related activities, with the goal of ensuring that the nation is one of the most attractive places in the world for long-term investment in such efforts.

� The Research and Experimentation Tax Credit is currently for companies that increase their R&D spending above a predetermined level. To encourage private investment in innovation, this credit, which is scheduled to expire in December, should be made permanent. And Congress and the administration should increase the allowable credit from 20 percent to 40 percent of qualifying R&D investments.

Hiding behind the facade of the National Academy of Science cannot disguise the rationale and intent of this leading group of corporationists (sometimes referred to as corporate socialists—and not to confused with national socialists, whose ideology was bounded by nationalism). Only the New York Times appears to be fooled (it is hard to tell these days when they are pretending).

Jim Horn, at 2:55 pm EST on March 3, 2006

Rationality

BC CS, I think my career is quite nice. I would suggest that you strive to get a graduate degree and become nationally recognized. There is a reason that people want “the best.” I should note that most people can obtain some “recommendations” and that many students don’t bother to take the initiative to become authorities in some field or other.

Kevin, I am curious. Why is it rational an inevitable for corporations to follow some path, but when culture “declines” you place blame ? Isn’t American culture just following some rational path as well? Likewise, isn’t the “weakness” of an individual just a preference for one form of behavior of another. The person above (with the BC CS) obviously didn’t want to work too hard, but that is his choice. Just like it is the choice of some companies to “downsize” their workforce, probably with negative long term consequences. Personally, as a constitutional matter, I prefer government regulation of corporations over government regulation of natural persons. Since corporations while enjoying some constitutional rights, don’t enjoy nearly the panoply of rights that natural persons do. Indeed, they can even be dissolved, upon petition of most state Attorneys General, upon petition to a court by a judge sitting alone. Death sentences for people require juries. Corporations can be bought and sold like slaves, whereas buying and selling the rights to control an individual’s very existence and character is considered bad manners.

Larry, at 10:20 am EST on March 4, 2006

getting an engineering degree (chemical)

Since I graduated two years ago, I have seen thousands of advertisements for engineers with 3 or more years of experience. But only a handful for entry-level positions.

I keep reading articles about mass retirements in industry leaving a shortage of technical workers.

If our schools don’t give us any salable skills, and our companies are no longer willing to spend a year or two in training — maybe we deserve to see our jobs go overseas.==============================================================================================

kjireton, at 9:05 am EST on March 9, 2006

Outsourse oneself to another country

I like what “neutron” wrote. I’ve been thinking a lot about working aboard or just over the border. I know that the pay would be decreased but I only have one life. I might as well make an adventure out of it. However, this concept is easy for an individual without children to support. In addition, I would not want to become an expatriate without some equity to make sure that I survived outside of the United States. As I get closer to retirement, I think living and working in another country would be great. I know that the public transportation and cost of living meets the needs of the elderly better in other countries. We can’t take our money with us upon death but we can smile on our deathbeds about how we lived our lfe.

Truck Chassis Engineer, at 9:15 am EDT on August 21, 2006