U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s since Trump took office (www.science.org)

submitted 6 days ago by vegeta1@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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[-] came_apart_at_Kmart@hexbear.net 31 points 6 days ago

unsurprising. there has been an outward flow for many years. there was an attempt to slow the large exodus to the PRC under Biden by threatening to withhold federal $ from all R1 schools that had a Confucius Institute (a study/research abroad vehicle for graduate students) and they all vanished overnight.

but that did nothing to the structural problem of funding austerity and the neoliberal-managerial university hollowing out, and just a general vibe that everything is reoriented towards serving private interests. i was hearing the worried conversations about the ominous future from well positioned researchers at the height of their careers as far back as 2011.

so, if you want to brain up, unless you want to compete for an increasingly smaller pool of public sector jobs making kinda crap pay and facing uncertainty... or chase VC money by trying to invent a machine that prints money for the already rich... your best option is to get the fuck out and go somewhere people are still actually trying to investigate shit.

[-] Beaver@hexbear.net 20 points 5 days ago

As you said, this is a long time in the making. State and Federal funding for universities has been dropping since the 90s and accelerating after 2007. The often talked about toxicity in academia (especially about publishing) is IMO partly just a result of that - it turned into a competition for scarce resources, which ruined a lot of the magic that draws people to PhD programs. Trump's awful shit undoubtedly catalyzed this drop, but MAGA is only a part of the story.

[-] BodyBySisyphus@hexbear.net 13 points 5 days ago

The burnout culture of academia has to be a big contributor.

[-] TrustedFeline@hexbear.net 14 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

there was an attempt to slow the large exodus to the PRC under Biden by threatening to withhold federal $ from all R1 schools that had a Confucius Institute (a study/research abroad vehicle for graduate students) and they all vanished overnight.

soooooooooo fucking stupid. The trend in science for the last like 50 years has been towards international cooperation. Obviously allowing an institution to collaborate with others results in more research output, funding, prestige, etc.

Biden: Slams dick in car door

libs: the perfidious chinese will never see this coming

[-] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

If even lib countries were smart, I’d love to see Canada or EU fast track immigration for all the “extra workers” the US refuses to put to work because the porks cannot bear the thought of doing anything outside of letting the money make itself.

If American porks are choosing to kick their feet up, sit back, and relax. Then this should be a golden opportunity for the rest of the world to help themselves to an abundant supply of highly educated millennials and gen Z just raring to go.

[-] TrustedFeline@hexbear.net 9 points 5 days ago

Then this should be a golden opportunity for the rest of the world to help themselves to an abundant supply of highly educated millennials and gen Z just raring to go.

Highly educated in AI slop and marketing schemes. I don't think the rest of the world is interested in highly-educated americans, unless they're coming in with their own capital

[-] PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net 7 points 5 days ago

Good.

[-] SerialExperimentsGay@hexbear.net 12 points 5 days ago

Actually this is pretty horrible once you take a look at where these positions were cut - most of these losses are due to people getting fired in positions related to public health, environmental protection and climate research, not to people with Ph. D.s moving to China or whatever explanation posters here have made up instead of reading the actual source.

[-] PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net 8 points 5 days ago

Okay, I'm being glib. Obviously it is a disaster that essential research is being deliberately sabotaged, but there are two potential outcomes I can imagine here. Either the façade continues with academia discarding all but the pretense of rigorous investigation to serve as an obsequius pillar of the state, or it disintegrates under the contradictions and we can all stop pretending this society cares whatsoever about the fundamental reality of the world we live in.