From: novikov@gibbs.ucsd.edu (Evgeny Novikov)
Newsgroups: sci.research.careers
Subject: Re: Bleak news from the academic job market
Date: 23 Nov 1992 00:27:33 GMT
Organization: Institute for Nonlinear Science, UCSD
NNTP-Posting-Host: gibbs.ucsd.edu

In article <1992Nov22.195007.791@athena.mit.edu> solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W Solinsky) writes:

>
>It is the Universities' job to do as much research as possible for the
>smallest amount of money. The research system in this country was not put
>in place for the benefit of a few thousand graduate students. It exists for
>the benefit of 240 million people. If the University decreased the number of
>PhDs and hired more graduate students, there would be two effects.
>
>A) 240 million people would be wasting money so that they Universities could
>carry out these social engineering practices for the benefit of a hand ful of
>people. Meanwhile the product of the quantity and quality of the research
>would decrease significantly.
>
>Jason W. Solinsky

 If it is the universities' job to do research for as little money as possible, then they are doing a bad job. Otherwise they would waste less on 
 administrative overhead and the bloated salaries of their of their top
 bureaucrats. 

 Scientific research is justified by saying that it is there to serve the
 240 million citizens of this country, but often the scientific research policy
 only serves the career ambitions of a relatively small number of politicians.
 This is why we have billions of dollars wasted on such garbage as the
 Superconducting Supercollider and the Space Station.

 As far as social engineering is concerned: The universities have been doing
 this for years. Currently some 60% of all doctorates in the physical
 sciences and engineering go to noncitizens. There is a real shortage of 
 US citizens who want to work in certain fields ( such as electrical 
 engineering ) for the slave wages paid to graduate students. The universities
 can get around the immigration policies that exist for all other professions
 by bringing in people who hope that getting a degree in this country will 
 eventually get them a permanent job here. This wrecks havoc with the normal
 system of supply and demand in a given profession. It drives down wages and
 employment oppportunities to the point where there is now a powerful incentive
 for US residents to forego a technical carreer in favor of something like
 law school. Social engineering at its finest ! 

 By destroying the career opportunities of scientists and engineers, you 
 are destroying the career opportunities of some of the potentially most
 productive members in society. This is not good for country. It is only good
 for some government/university administrators who argue as in the post
 that I'm responding to, pat themselves on the back for a job well done,
 and then demand a pay increase.

 By the way, the amount of money spent on science research is only a small
 fraction of the overall US budget. A complete reform of the current system
 would cost little and probably would eventually yield better results in
 terms of the quality of work done.

                                   Harry Luithardt
                                   Institute for Nonlinear Science 
                                   UC San Diego
                         e-mail:   novikov@gibbs.ucsd.edu
Newsgroups: sci.research.careers,soc.culture.british,soc.culture.canada