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Comment by Mountain_Skies | Hacker News Reader

Why does the United States feel entitled to drain the intellectual capital of countries that are least able to afford losing it? These discussions always end up going on about "the good of the country" but never about the good of other countries or the good of humanity. "The good of the country" really means for the good of the top 0.001%, which is where the purported benefit mostly ends up.

If the US is going to hoover up all of the intellectual capital it can, it at least needs to acknowledge that this is harming other countries and accept some of the burden of repairing some of the damage this causes without attaching a bunch of strings that primarily benefits the US. Don't be surprised when so much of the world is resentful of you if you keep up this type of behavior.

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Not a good take. These individuals have the choice of where to go. What should we say? You can’t come?

Also - don’t forget that many immigrants (both high and low skilled) send money home. This can improve outcomes over time in their home countries.

Finally... ignoring a language barrier, what’s stopping you from moving to one of these countries? If you have valuable skills and they are suffering brain drain, you can potentially help.

If you don’t want to or if that sounds ridiculous, now you understand the position of a high skilled resident of one of those countries

> Not a good take. These individuals have the choice of where to go. What should we say? You can’t come?

The US does say "you can't come" to most people who aren't highly skilled, so this choice of where to go comes out of the aligned interests of the US and the migrant, not a general principle.

In fact, the US says "you can't come" to highly educated would-be immigrants who don't have a STEM designation.

I have the same reply to the parent of your comment: we do and I think that’s a really bad move on our part!

I agree that we say you can’t come and feel it is a terrible mistake to do so. I would favor much more liberal immigration policies and guest worker programs at all skill levels. This particular paper is about more skilled migrants.

>Why does the United States feel entitled

Why do you feel people choosing to go to the US is the US feeling entitled? Do you believe these 'brains' aren't capable of assessing their own self interest?

>These discussions always end up going on about "the good of the country" but never about the good of other countries or the good of humanity.

That's because you're proposing restricting people from attending foreign universities 'for the good of humanity' which is on its face ridiculous.

> "The good of the country" really means for the good of the top 0.001%, which is where the purported benefit mostly ends up.

And those 'brains' who choose to go where they want get no benefit? Who are you to tell them what to do?

>If the US is going to hoover up all of the intellectual capital it can, it at least needs to acknowledge that this is harming other countries and accept some of the burden of repairing some of the damage this causes without attaching a bunch of strings that primarily benefits the US.

The US now owes other countries for accepting immigration, apparently. This is of course insane.

Does the “intellectual capital” not have agency? Are they being forced?

At a blush I agreed with you, but then I thought a bit more, and now disagree.

The presumption is that the local intellects will be developed, if just developed nations would not take them. This is not as likely.

The counter, where foreign educated people come back to home country is. This way the birth nation gains the foreign nation's intellect.(plenty of anecdotal evidence)

Will this be the case all the time? Of course not. The follow up question is, how many will return, where is the break even, where is the educational level, etc

I think hundreds of millions of units of “intellectual capital” (these are human beings with the right to make life choices) would wait in line to get hoovered up by the US

your assuming that these 'brains' will find a use in their home country, and that's where your wrong.

1) no one is forcing people to move out of their country. it's a personal choice of each of these individuals.

2) as a real life example, in my home country I know of plenty smart people with or without diplomas that ended up in jobs that have nowhere near close of a place to use their 'brains' even if they really want to and not from a lack of trying just a lack of opportunities.

what good is having having a sharp brain and a PhD if the only local job opportunities are: door to door salesman, fruits and vegetables vendor, cashier, farmer, goat herder, working in a call center.

In India there is a saying - "Brain drain is better than brain in drain".

> Why does the United States feel entitled to drain the intellectual capital of countries that are least able to afford losing it?

Why do other countries feel entitled to drain all the manufacturing jobs and mid wage work from the United States' middle class and working class citizens that are least able to afford losing it? Competition creates winners and losers in various sectors and people go to where opportunities are. That's just life.

>Why do other countries feel entitled to drain all the manufacturing jobs and mid wage work from the United States'

Blame U.S corporations and U.S policy for that. The other countries that provide such labor aren't the ones forcing the U.S to do that.

Blame ex-US companies and ex-US tax policy for ex-US brain drain. The US isn't forcing people to come here in the same way that China / Singapore / India / Vietnam aren't forcing US corps to shift production there; people follow incentives.

The so called developing nations are often dictatorships that want to get rid of their "intellectual capital" because it destabilizes the dictator's position.

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