As a consumer and citizen I don’t care who does the engineering… or the science… or anything else for that matter as long as it gets done. It’s interesting that you assume that the marketplace is “unfair” simply because you have to compete with people who are just as skilled as you but are willing to work for less. I bet from their perspective it’s “unfair” if they’re not given the opportunity to compete with you. Is it their fault they weren’t born in a country with as much opportunity as the U.S.? What’s fair or unfair often depends on whose ox is being gored.
And why should we care whether native-born people can compete in engineering? The fact is, in this day and age, most engineering and scientific functions are commodities, so why not treat them as such? Because they weren’t commodities 20 years ago? Things change.
Do you now feel solidarity with your brothers in the United Auto Workers Union whose jobs have been exported around the globe for years now? If you do, then Big Auto would be happy to keep those jobs here in the U.S. if you’re willing to pay an additional $15,000 per car. But you’re probably not willing to do that.
So the U.S. churns out fewer native-born engineers and scientists and instead we import them. I don’t see the problem… unless you’re a native-born engineer or scientist trying to compete with these hungry foreigners.
