an outside perspective - US Brain suck? (Score 1)

With regards to the title of the original article: 'How to Ruin American Enterprise'

Well... there are real easy ways to do that:

• Allow mon/olig-opolies in various sectors of the economy and subsidize them ('agri-foods', media, software, etc...)
• Spend outrageous amounts of money on military might
• Arm and fund fundamentalists to fight commies, then piss them off
• Let contras sell drugs to finance their wars, then put lots of people in jail for selling said drugs (preferably blacks/poor/indigenous)
• Show off your power, and refuse to be a team player: no to Kyoto, international Criminal Court, landmine treaty, etc...
• Overthrow any democratically elected government that tries to help its people. Install people like Pinochet instead. For example, seeKilling Hope
• Develop a class of elite commentators that encourage such navel-gazing that you come to blame all your ills on lack of 'family values' or religion, or liberal media, too much pornography and violent movies. Oh, and commie terrorists.

I'm sure I could think of more...

Most of the 'arguments' in Stein's article are weak, disjointed, misleading, ignorant and/or stupid, though on some points, I'm compelled to agree with his drivel.

Yes, the US education ahem, 'system' is producing a generation of ignorami. Check for example National Geographic's survey. Your country bombed Afghanistan, killing how many people? Yet only 17% of adults 18-24 can tell where the country is on a world map.

A good part of the technological success of the US of A has always been provided by foreigners. How many American Nobel prize winners were immigrants? In Canada, politicians are alarmed at what they call "Brain drain", i.e. smart Canadians leaving the country for lower taxes, better labs, positions, etc... Canadians are not the only one with this problem - how many other countries educate people for free, only to have them emigrate to the US? We could call it brain suck; US education is being subsidised by the rest of the world.