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U.S. pushes for more scientists, but the jobs aren’t there
The Washington Post ^ | July 7, 2012 | Brian Vastag

Posted on 07/08/2012 2:26:24 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

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To: Artie
“Under ObamaCare, the will be no payments for “expensive therapies”. Hence, no further need for R&D dollars, researchers or sales force. All generic drug product lines will be sold off to third world countries.”

You are spot on. Further, because Obamacare will further break the US bank there will be fewer and fewer dollars available for federal research grants. I know there are plenty here who don't think the federal government should be funding research, but unless there is an alternative there will be a marked reduction in American science, and this will put us behind in the world.

21 posted on 07/08/2012 6:09:25 AM PDT by pieceofthepuzzle
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To: fuente

In my experience, there’s no better way to sabotage a product-development project than to let Ph.D’s run it.


22 posted on 07/08/2012 6:10:22 AM PDT by Windcatcher (Obama is a COMMUNIST and the MSM is his armband-wearing propaganda machine.)
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To: WriteOn
“Yes. Phd is way overrated.”

I'm an MD, not a PhD, but the statement you make is overgeneralized. At some point in your life you likely had, or will have, some medication or medical intervention that was developed at least in part based on the efforts of PhDs. Having said that, those PhDs who traditionally vote democrat are screwing themselves, as well as the country in general.

23 posted on 07/08/2012 6:15:03 AM PDT by pieceofthepuzzle
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To: fuente
“The bio-technology boom started in earnest around 2002 (think the anthrax scare just after 9/11) and lasted until about 2005. The government pour HUGE amounts of money into the area, then asked for the results and found none. The academics and government labs were like, “What? You wanted products? We don’t do products!” After that, the industry imploded.”

I agree with the general premise of your comment, but would point out that pouring money into big pharma would likely have the same consequences. It is very difficult to develop viable therapeutics, which is why they wind up often being so expensive (until they are off patent). I think one of the big problems is that the people giving out money get suckered by hype too often (this includes venture capitalists as well as government funding agencies). True science doesn't need hype. Science has gone Hollywood to a great degree, and this has hurt it immensely.

24 posted on 07/08/2012 6:23:06 AM PDT by pieceofthepuzzle
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To: Windcatcher

I have a Chemistry degree and when I decided I wanted to go back to school, I decided to get an MBA instead of a Master’s or a pHD. This was for one simple reason, people who majored in the sciences/engineering typically have relatively no idea on people management or how a business work and I wanted those skills as well.

That being said, I still love science and I am happy that I have a degree in it, but I wouldn’t suggest it to kids getting degrees out there. It really can limit your upward mobility.

Also, I have met lots of pHD’s that I wonder how the hell they got their degree in the first place. They seem to be devoid of practical knowledge and common sense.


25 posted on 07/08/2012 6:25:55 AM PDT by Lance Romance
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To: Windcatcher
To an extent, that is true. I am a PhD Engineer that specializes in technology development, but I am an anomaly. People think that Universities do this, but they don't. Others turn to government labs, but they are likely to be no better since they do not have a profit motive either. It is a very long journey from technology readiness level 1 (TRL1, fundamental technology/scientific exploration) to deployment of technology (TRL7) in the form of products. To do so takes champions and a continuous guide that understands the applicable markets, funding agencies, relevant and competing technologies and the development process.
26 posted on 07/08/2012 6:30:37 AM PDT by fuente
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To: pieceofthepuzzle
I agree. Big Pharma has always presented a problem for me with respect to hiring. I have chemist that develop coatings and other materials development research related efforts of the organic chemistry flavor, but not related to drugs or delivery systems. The issue is that Big Pharma pays well, but is often a very volatile career path. Lots of up swings and many many layoffs. So my folks always want the big salaries afforded by Big Pharma (up to 30% more due to increased risk), but they don't understand why their friends who work for BigPharma are the first laid off.
27 posted on 07/08/2012 6:41:38 AM PDT by fuente
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
"Two groups who vote overwhelmingly Democrat: PhDs and unemployed."

I think that may be true of non-science academic PhD's, and possibly some academic science PhD's. Most of the science and "working for businesses" PhD's I know are conservative.

28 posted on 07/08/2012 6:45:33 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

The military and NASA cuts aren’t helping.


29 posted on 07/08/2012 6:54:00 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
Two groups who vote overwhelmingly Democrat: PhDs and unemployed.

You have to distinguish between academic PhDs and private-industry PhDs. The PhD who depends on government grant money is naturally going to favor the expansion of government, because a bigger government will have more money to spend on an increasingly large number of topics.

30 posted on 07/08/2012 7:01:23 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (If I can't be persuasive, I at least hope to be fun.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
Usually PhD’s in science and engineering worked toward the degree as research or teaching assistants. They get paid (not a lot but enough to live on as a student!) and get tuition wavers. So they usually don't accumulate the debt as do the liberal arts majors.

The article was typical liberal SOP take one case where there is a science jobs problem then extrapolate it to all science career tracks.

31 posted on 07/08/2012 7:17:53 AM PDT by Reily
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To: PapaBear3625; Wonder Warthog

The government empowers the credentialed over the competent. Naturally, the credentialed favor expansion of the power of government. The Democrats are the party of government. Therefore, most PhDs favor the Democrats, who recognize their “brilliance” and reward it proportionately. Same mootchal backscratching as between government unions and Democrats.


32 posted on 07/08/2012 7:18:09 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (The Democratic Party strongly supports full civil rights for necro-Americans!)
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To: Brilliant
The military and NASA cuts aren’t helping.

True.

33 posted on 07/08/2012 8:05:11 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Just another of the many methods Obama is utilizing to destroy the United States. That’s what this is really about.


34 posted on 07/08/2012 8:23:24 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: Nifster
There are plenty of jobs for engineers.

Perhaps of a certain age. Try being told by a headhunter their client is "looking for someone younger" and not even being retirement age.

35 posted on 07/08/2012 8:50:41 AM PDT by newzjunkey
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

There are technical fields in government military labs and warfare centers that are desperately short of engineers and/or PhDs, even with the cuts - where entire divisions have nobody under the age of 60. The problem is that they now have a smattering of 25 year old fresh out of college types, but then there is a huge hole in the middle. The Navy actually hired a lot of people out of the auto industry to try to fill that.

Going into defense has been “uncool” for quite a while (if you wanted to get laid, you tell girls you’re going to work for Solyndra, not the Naval Research Lab or Lockheed Martin), and there was a long period of time where Wall Street was siphoning off science and engineering talent for people to be “quants.”


36 posted on 07/08/2012 9:11:19 AM PDT by Strategerist
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

...as we spend $40+ Billion on food stamps, things like basic research simply get crowded out.

...but, of course, people won’t figure that out.


37 posted on 07/08/2012 9:21:50 AM PDT by BobL
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To: fuente

So true. I’ve worked far a large biopharma company for 8 years and we’ve had several layoffs. The low hanging fruit of drug development are gone now so here we are.

One thing no one has mentioned is immigration. About one half of the scientists I work with come from other countries. Do we need to import scientists in this field?


38 posted on 07/08/2012 9:31:44 AM PDT by Mr. Peabody
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To: WriteOn

“Yes. Phd is way overrated.”

The wife wouldn’t agree with you, but the kids are cheering for you!!


39 posted on 07/08/2012 9:34:52 AM PDT by BobL
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To: Strategerist

I believe law firms hire and send scientists and engineers to law school to help beef up their in-house knowledge and court expertise.


40 posted on 07/08/2012 9:57:48 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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