Exactly, the US created a model of offloading the financial burden of education onto other countries and then luring away top global talent to fill gaps in its domestic education pipeline. Now that the appeal of the US as a destination for tech workers and scientists is eroding, reliance on foreign talent is becoming a huge vulnerability. The atrophied domestic education system is not capable of producing homegrown talent to offset the outflow of experts. In fact, this is a self-reinforcing phenomenon. On top of that, the financialization of the economy makes STEM degrees less attractive. What’s the point of paying huge sums of money to get a degree in engineering if there aren’t many engineering jobs to go around. It’s a perfect storm where the US loses its grip on global talent, and it’s left with an education system ill-equipped to replenish its workforce or sustain its technological edge. The era of poaching talent without cultivating it at home is over.

Finally, even when the decision makers start to realize there is a problem, it’s going to take years to implement the necessary changes and produce new talent. All the while, the US will be falling further behind nations like China.