I read a very interesting article in the New York Times on how the United States is losing not only non-skilled work, like manufacturing, to outsourcing, but today even the most prestigious of jobs, scientific research, is being outsourced.
“American executives who are planning to send work abroad express concern about what they regard as an incipient erosion of scientific prowess in this country, pointing to the lagging math and science proficiency of American high school students and the reluctance of some college graduates to pursue careers in science and engineering.”
I find it quite ironic that the reason why companies are outsourcing the most skilled jobs of any society is because of lack of education. Currently, in American culture, there is a political movement which is selling the idea to people that the science we know today is flawed, and a more philosophical concept of science is required. It’s hard not to see a link between these two situations, one idea casts doubt onto science and the other is heavily dependent (the jobs) on the belief in science.
American politics, with it’s current ties with Intelligent Design movement, is failing Americans in many ways. Teaching student to accept ignorance when in doubt will never have a scientific backing, but it seems clear to me that if education loses $59M by the federal government, ignorance might become more widespread and accepting of even the most unfounded ideas.
A Washington Post article summarizes the devastating effects of these budget cuts quite nicely.
“The budget would eliminate the Perkins loan program, which provides low-interest loans to low- and middle-income college students. The budget also would end Perkins loan forgiveness for members of the armed services and Peace Corps volunteers. The budget would redirect those savings to increase spending on Pell Grants, which provide college grants to low-income students and raise the maximum award $100 to $4,150 — the first of five annual Pell increases planned by the White House.”
But I lied, this is not irony. This two prong attack on science is not a coincidence. Sadly, the extremely religious have political power, and this agenda is heavily dependent on people’s ignorance. To me it seems clear that in order to sell ignorance, education cannot be cherished, and the fact that research jobs are leaving the country is a clear sign that the extremely religious are getting their way.
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