zhsky

Всегда считал, что спорт - точное и даже концентрированное отражение политики и экономики. К сожалению, мало кто анализирует спорт с точки зрения репрезентации общественных феноменов. А вот мой любимый Ричард Флорида и его коллега Джесси Эллиотт пишут в электронной версии Boston Globe о проблемах, возникающих перед американской экономикой из-за нехватки иммигрантов (привет, "патриоты"!) и в качестве альтернативного примера приводят бейсбол.

But while baseball continues to attract the best talent, something different is happening to American innovation and entrepreneurship. We are restricting visas for foreign scientists and students and turning others away -- while the rest of the world has learned how to play at home. Cellphone technology in Finland. Consumer electronics in Tokyo and Osaka. Filmmaking in New Zealand and India. Aerospace design in Toulouse and Hamburg. Not only is home-grown talent from these places staying; foreigners are picking Vancouver and Sydney over Seattle.

The mobility of cutting-edge talent will be one of the greatest economic challenges to the United States in the 21st century. Yet, even as other countries work on developing their own infrastructure and luring foreign talent to their shores, the United States is shooting itself in the foot. Visas are down at a time when we should be handing them out to any and every able-minded worker. Our education system is failing to prepare kids for the global creative economy. Gross levels of income inequality and housing unafforadability are crippling what's left of our entrepreneurial middle- and lower-classes. Even our universities, though still among the world's best, are not the only game in town anymore.