Replies

Engineering is going to happen where the problems to solve are, (manufacturing plants) engineering as in tool making, process development, etc, the nuts and bolts of innovation that make up 90% of R&D. If you think the US can give away manufacturing but keep R&D you are mistaken. R&D is following manufacturing as this article illustrates, soon the USA will be just like Mexico. The few very rich and the many very poor, current economic polices are killing the (GOP voting) American middle class. I find it strange that the GOP can think that people who's jobs were lost to an "out sourcing" policy encouraged by the GOP, will vote GOP. LOL, they are out of their minds in D.C. Every lost job is more then one lost vote, that worker has friends and family, people uneffected will begin to worry about thier jobs. The GOP is going to pay a big price for it's insane trade policies that deliberately but US jobs at risk.

So if your thesis was true, you would expect that Puerto Rico would be taking over all research for big pharma. It's not. We will just have to disagree about whether manufacturing capability implies product development ability.

I agree that the issue plays out badly for the GOP, but what do you expect the government to do about it? It is kinda like the hubub over oil and gas prices. You think the politicians are going to do a better job of sorting out the issues invovled? No thanks.

As I recall, in the late 80's and early 90's the Japanese were taking over, now it is the Indians or Chinese. I don't get why all the gloom and doomers think that the U.S. is so weak that it can't compete economically against third world nations.