As crazy as it sounds, ideas like this might be necessary to save America from completely trashing its own economy and position in the world.
If putting innovators on boats 24 miles of the coast is what it takes to maintain America's innovation edge, so be it.
Regular Americans have no understanding of how wealth is created and how once dominant empires can lose the very things that originally put them on top. They somehow imagine that, even in the face of imminent systemic collapse, America will always remain on top and always be somewhere that immigrants will clamor to get into.
American life is MASSIVELY subsidized by the fact that the dollar is the world's de facto reserve currency, but that will only remain the case if American continues to lead economically and China is already playing a far longer, far smarter game.
American industry is MASSIVELY subsidized by the fact that, for now, the U.S. is where the investment dollars gravitate to - but that can change overnight.
American power in the world is ultimately dependent upon economic power but, ironically, cripplingly expensive and completely unnecessary militarily adventures over the past decade have hastened the day when China becomes the world's preeminent economic power by approximately two decades.
America has become wholly dependent upon the manifold privileges and advantages of being Number One. That means that there can be no graceful decline; once an unknown tipping point is reached and it becomes clear that this is no longer the case, the advantages currently supporting everything that Americans take for granted will slip away in rapid succession.
So, yes, today, it is possible to treat foreign innovators and highly-skilled workers with disdain, to force them to jump through hoops and subject them to bizarre, dehumanizing visa processes, Hell, you can even force them to sit in boats off the coast of San Francisco ... but it is already true that the best and brightest are at least looking at what is available elsewhere, that countries like Singapore and Chile are waking up to the possibilities and I wonder how many more economic crises it will take before the proposition of dedicating your hard work and talent to a people that clearly hate you begins to look less attractive.
So, embrace this seemingly crazy notion and any other idea that routes around self-destructive tendencies of the American voter, do all you can to put tomorrow's breakthroughs as close as possible to American soil but, just remember ... we're going to need a bigger boat.
If putting innovators on boats 24 miles of the coast is what it takes to maintain America's innovation edge, so be it.
Regular Americans have no understanding of how wealth is created and how once dominant empires can lose the very things that originally put them on top. They somehow imagine that, even in the face of imminent systemic collapse, America will always remain on top and always be somewhere that immigrants will clamor to get into.
American life is MASSIVELY subsidized by the fact that the dollar is the world's de facto reserve currency, but that will only remain the case if American continues to lead economically and China is already playing a far longer, far smarter game.
American industry is MASSIVELY subsidized by the fact that, for now, the U.S. is where the investment dollars gravitate to - but that can change overnight.
American power in the world is ultimately dependent upon economic power but, ironically, cripplingly expensive and completely unnecessary militarily adventures over the past decade have hastened the day when China becomes the world's preeminent economic power by approximately two decades.
America has become wholly dependent upon the manifold privileges and advantages of being Number One. That means that there can be no graceful decline; once an unknown tipping point is reached and it becomes clear that this is no longer the case, the advantages currently supporting everything that Americans take for granted will slip away in rapid succession.
So, yes, today, it is possible to treat foreign innovators and highly-skilled workers with disdain, to force them to jump through hoops and subject them to bizarre, dehumanizing visa processes, Hell, you can even force them to sit in boats off the coast of San Francisco ... but it is already true that the best and brightest are at least looking at what is available elsewhere, that countries like Singapore and Chile are waking up to the possibilities and I wonder how many more economic crises it will take before the proposition of dedicating your hard work and talent to a people that clearly hate you begins to look less attractive.
So, embrace this seemingly crazy notion and any other idea that routes around self-destructive tendencies of the American voter, do all you can to put tomorrow's breakthroughs as close as possible to American soil but, just remember ... we're going to need a bigger boat.