Posted on 12/03/2006 11:44:21 AM PST by BenLurkin
As the United States embarks on the "Second Space Age," its aerospace, science and other high-tech industries face a critical shortage of skilled engineers, scientists and technicians to do the work necessary for the country to maintain pre-eminence in space.
That message ran throughout Friday's discussions during the California Space Authority's Transforming Space Conference, a gathering of the state's various space enterprise interests.
"The Second Space Age is a new age of space exploration," said Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Riverside, honorary co-chairman of the conference.
This new age is similar to the Cold War space race in one important way, he said: "It depends on American leadership."
One oft-cited - but qualified - statistic compares the number of engineers produced yearly in the United States with other rising high-tech nations.
This country graduates approximately 70,000 new engineers per year, based on a 2004 survey, compared to some 200,000 or more in India and as many as 600,000 in China.
While noting that a wide gap in producing new engineers exists, the speakers were careful to note that the figures from India and China may be somewhat skewed due to those nations' broader definitions of engineers.
"We need to wake up. We will not be the leaders of the world we have been since World War II," Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon said. The Santa Clarita Republican is outgoing chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
"We can't just rest on our laurels. There are always people who want to knock us off that pedestal."
The problem of developing a work force of engineers is a pipeline issue, beginning with too few students willing to study math and science, McKeon said. Only half the students who do pursue such subjects in college actually graduate with those degrees, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
Oh, more than that .
You just kinda gotta get used to flaky things happening coming off the pad occasionally...
How many pre-meds take P-Chem?
That's something so depressingly stupid as to stand out even among all the other depressingly stupid things our government does. Unskilled laborers from Mexico and Central America are welcomed by the million every year while talent is actively turned away.
It's a long night coming.
I did...
It's not just trust, it's Central Planning. The government turned around and invested the aerospace budget in welfare.
A generation later we have a great welfare industry in the US, well supplied with trained personnel by the universities, and a shortage of engineers.
I think it is a fundamental flaw in our system of elections that causes long-term projects to be in danger. Every eight years, no matter what, the bully pulpit has a different preacher.
"What are we spending money up there for when we have all these problems here?"
That investment choice is paying off with interest alright!
Yeah, constructive and productive long term projects are very difficult because of the democratic aspects of our system- they don't take money from a few and give it to many, just the opposite. The cooption of the educational system into the welfare industry removed a traditional influence upon the populace to invest in and wait for scientific research.
". Auto mechanics, plumbers, A/C heat repair is not going to India or China."
True, but a lot of them go to illegal aliens.
Or, at least until the "Star Wars" funding dries up, as was the case with me. Invest a career in DOD at your own risk!
That's not really the reason though. For some reason US kids just aren't that interested in science. They're more concerned about who is going to win on American Idol and what color panties Britney Spears isn't wearing.
Sorry that happened to you. I know people who've been continuously employed by DOD, mostly contractor types, since the early '80s, at very good salaries. I know people who've had to move a few times, but don't know anybody who's lost a contract who didn't find new gainful employment in short order. Sounds like you were unlucky.
"Can you promise and guarantee that this will not happen?"
Of course not, and you know I can't. Never in the history of this country could a student plan his/her career in school and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he/she would have employment in that career for life. Never.
But I bet that future graduates in math, science, or engineering will have more potential employers knocking on their doors than graduates in, say, Classical Studies or Women's Studies.
I don't know which kids you're hanging around, but where I am even kids whose parents were not in the sciences,are into science big time.
You mentioned clearances, so you think about tax based jobs, yes?
Now, I would not put Classical Studies and Women's Studies in the same category. The first give you a real education for your mind, the second are a cruel joke.
"Only if they work for the government, which is a net drain on the economy."
True, but only if you don't count the security umbrella that DOD gives to the economy as a whole. If you only look at cost, the military is a huge drag on the economy. Now factor in the benefit of being able to do business in peace and security, and DOD becomes a bargain. Wall Street would not have recovered after 911 if the military weren't on the case, killing bad guys.
Not so, Health and Human Services, HUD, etc., but DOD is a net gain to the US economy.
This country graduates approximately 70,000 new engineers per year, based on a 2004 survey, compared to some 200,000 or more in India and as many as 600,000 in China.
It's only temporary folks. If things keep going like they are we'll end up sending our spys there to steal their technology and American wages will be lower than China's or India's wages. Chinese and Indian governments will be contracting with American companies because of the cheaper labor here. We'll be counterfieting their currency and selling nuke technology to Taiwan, Kashmir and Tibet to make ends meet here.
Yes, contractor jobs, even regular government jobs like those horribly intrusive mathematicians at NSA who are listening in to terrorists' conversations trying to keep them from killing us. Please tell me you don't begrudge them their salaries because they're (gasp!) federal employees.
Our troops in Iraq are federal employees, too. Some good, honorable people work for the government doing complex, difficult jobs.
I think the point is that if you want a pool to choose from, there has to be a future for those who front the time, effort, and money (debt), to prepare themselves.
I can remember times when government funding was cut for this or that program and PhDs were out of a job and pumping gas (we pump our own gas here now so that's nolonger an option). No doubt their children remember too.
Like all theories, the free market theory brakes down. When we talk about private enterprise producing for comsumers, it holds up. When we address issues of national security, it doesn't work because we ask the individual to foot the bill for training that works to the good of a smaller [than global] market with no prmise of a pay-off. (Remember, the free market assumes that individuals will persue their own best interests - not national insterests)
Thomas Jefferson sumed it up when he said "Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains."
I don't even know why this issue still comes up on FR anymore. its not even debatable anymore - the free market and global trade have spoken, these tech jobs can be done for less offshore, so they will be.
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