America’s Broken Brain Trust

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Talk about riling me up! Bob Herbert wrote an op-ed piece Peering into the future,  in today’s New York Times that made my blood boil.  Normally, I have a great deal of respect for Bob Herbert, but his editorial about Bill Gates was just over the top.

Bill and Melinda Gates made a surprise appearance in an algebra class at West Charlotte High School, Charlotte, NC.  Apparently the Gate’s have been traveling around the country going to public schools in order to see what has “gone wrong” and what is working in the public schools.  As to the former, they could easily have looked closer to home for the answers.

To his credit, Mr. Gates recognizes the problem, “Our performance at every level — primary and secondary school achievement, high school graduation, college entry, college completion — is dropping against the rest of the world.”  However, Mr. Gates is an ironic figure to be promoting the benefits of completing college and the value of a formal education.

Bill Gates himself dropped out of college in order to start Microsoft.  He is not a scientist, engineer, nor is he a computer programmer.  He is a business man - plain and simple.   Granted he had a great deal of vision and drive,  but his very success sans college degree makes  this a very hard sell to the would-be millionaires hoping for a slice of the American dream.  The message of his life story and the employment practices of his company  are “quit school, make money. Stay in school, be a sucker.”

For the past 30 years college and graduate students have been spurning careers in science, engineering, math and computer programming in favor of business and banking.  Many pundits lapse into the lazy logic that these subjects are “hard” and therefore less desirable.  If it is reasonably easy to create wealth on Wall Street - why undergo the years of effort and education to become a Ph.D. or engineer.  This has always been true to one extent or another.  But why has the trend accelerated at such an alarming rate?  How did we get ourselves into such a sorry state?

The irony of the Gates’ visit to public schools is that Microsoft has been part of the problem.  Gates has appeared before Congress insisting that they up the number of H1-B visas granted because these fine minds were “needed” to keep the US economy strong.  Nonesense.  H1-B’s ulimately drain the American braintrust by squashing salaries and consigning entire swaths of academia to foreign nationals.  That might boost the bottom line for the likes of Microsoft and Imclone.  It is quick fix, and it works!  The  trouble is that cuts Americans out of the action and also does not account for the consequences that only come due when these foreign nationals decide to go home. Microsoft has also been involved in significant amounts of outsourcing high-tech jobs to India .  This has led to job losses for people with just the skill set that Bill Gates is promoting in the schools.

What’s wrong with this picture?

On the surface, this would appear to have little to do with a brain drain issue.  It in truth, it is more of a symptom than a cause.   But symptoms have consequences.

At the outset, I must say that the whole scene was horrifying.  Strangely, I did not find the outburst from Wilson, as distasteful as unnerving as the general booing and moaning that came from the republican side as a whole.  That large a response had to be orchestrated. The fact that a fairly substantial group of republicans thought that booing was somehow appropriate for a presidential speech before a joint session of Congress is unprecedented.   It implies a pervasive  lack of respect for the President, and the office of the presidency.  Make no mistake, this is something new and very disturbing.   I have watched many a joint session of Congress and I have never seen cat calls and booing before.

Perhaps it is  not too surprising that the very contingents who trashed the economy, dragged us into a pointless war, encouraged torture,  and destroyed the middle class, now see fit to throw respect for our Commander in Chief into the toilet with everything else they  managed to destroy.

Of course there are racial undertones in all of this.  That part is evident as there is a pervasive “red-neck” population that insists a  Civil War victory for the confederates is still up for grabs.  I think Maureen Dowd said it best in her New York Times Op-Ed “Boy, Oh Boy”.

When I was growing up, this red-neck contingency - though present, had been marginalized.  Their impact on the country effectively neutralized.  That all changed when business formed an unholy alliance with the religious-right.  The process was outlined so well in Thomas Frank’s 2004 book What’s the Matter with Kansas? Shows how money from the conservative wing of the republican party gave this small but “loud” group of individuals a megaphone that has somehow managed to dumb down an entire nation.  When we appeal to the lowest common denominator - we can expect little more than a  jungle mentality.  “I’ve got mine, so f**k you!”  It is a society ruled by fear while the bottom 95% scramble for every crumb of security they can get.  The more erudite among us call it “social darwinism.”  By whatever name you call it - it has grave consequences for our society and standing in the world.

Ok, I couldn’t help the sarcasm in the title.  But after all the hysterics about “indoctrination” that the far-right had about the Obama “back-to-school” speech, there was little, if anything controversial about it.  Who could possibly disagree with the notion that staying in school and working hard are good things?  Hopefully no one.  Who could argue that all that hard work will pay off in the end?   Well…I could.

Lest this sound like a radical diatribe against “elitist” America, please let me clarify.  I actually am a Ph.D. with a higher degrees in molecular biology, genetics, microbiology and immunology.  I’ve taught at the undergraduate level and have my name on several publications.  I certainly don’t dispute that education and working hard are “good things.”  What I have a problem with is the mistaken notion that the hard work, money and time spent on an education will pay off in the end.  I would answer that question with the modifiers such as “maybe” “hopefully”  and “possibly.”  Note that I omit “probably” and “likely.”

You see, drawing such sweeping conclusions about how “education” always pays off is an exercise in hubris for the academic.  Tell that to the unemployed IT specialists, the computer programers that were laid off through out-sourcing.  Tell that to the scientist at the bench who with their Ph.D. is laboring 70 hours per week for about $30k in compensation.  In the current world - education doesn’t always “pay.”  In fact it can be a huge liability in terms of time spent out of the work force and accrued debt.   There are far too many well -educated and very dedicated Ph.D.’s out there working odd jobs and serving people at restaurants for this to be true.

The problem with Obama’s speech is that it was built on a premise that died with advent of the “trickle down” economics in the Reagan era.   In such a world he who holds the gold, makes the rules.  The result is that precious little “trickles down” to the creative and inventive among us.  Most of it stays in the board room with the CEO.

Of course this drives us right into the heart of the trickle-down mess.  The final result has been a rising gap between rich and poor with a small group of middle class dangling off the side of a cliff.  The abyss is unrelenting poverty.  Make no mistake: if things don’t change then MOST Americans are headed off the cliff.

People are not that complicated.   They are operating out of a need for self-preservation. The best and brightest can do many things.  What they are choosing to do is a direct reflection of this income gap.  If a scientist is making less than $40k after 8 years of post-graduate training while a MBA is offering $250k a year after two years of training - where do you think the talent will go?

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