I have been talking about this for at least 25 years.
And for at least 25 years there has been active suppression of that discussion by the US research complex. That is, US taxpayers fund a research complex that generally views itself as post-national and beyond US jurisdiction.
And for at least 25 years there has been active suppression of that discussion by the US research complex. That is, US taxpayers fund a research complex that generally views itself as post-national and beyond US jurisdiction.
The biggest problem with this is that other nations remain nations. China isn’t post-national. Oil kingdoms aren’t post-national. South Asia isn’t. Nor is Russia.
By underfunding science we opened the door to a “post-national delusion” which spread to justify funding research.
By underfunding science we opened the door to a “post-national delusion” which spread to justify funding research.
The easiest place to see this is to ask “who does the work in university labs?” The sad answer: “It’s not technically work if we can technically reclassify the workers as ‘students and trainees’”That opened the door to China et al because we don’t pay US scale for ‘non-workers’.
In short, universities fashion an idealism about a post-national world that is the exact shape of a well placed fig-leaf to cover the needs for funding underfunded science. The rationalization precisely matches the need to make up the shortfall. The solution is thus paradoxical.
The solution may be to fund the very people who are causing the problem at a US market level of stability & ease that hasn’t been seen in 50 years. That feels awful to me. But you won’t be able to stop this problem with every researcher worrying about grants, labor, tenure, etc.
The idea of requiring K-12, four years of undergraduate, 5-7 years of graduate labor, 4 years of post-doctoral labor, and perhaps 6 years of tenure track before getting a permanent job is beyond psychotic. That could be 30 years of constant preparation for a first permanent job.
We need to end the current system. Either fund it properly again on US scale expectation, or pull the plug.
The deep problem with Academic espionage is that we‘re trying not to pay for research. You can bitch as much as you want. But until we pay true costs, this will continue.
The deep problem with Academic espionage is that we‘re trying not to pay for research. You can bitch as much as you want. But until we pay true costs, this will continue.
