Just another of those random thoughts...

[Bob Schroeck]

The USA is, and has been for some years, worrying about a shortage of scientists, engineers, and other technical folk.  Apparently we are falling behind rest of the First World there, and it's going to impact our economy and our ability to dominate the world stage and whatnot.
So...
What happened in Fenspace!USA, where the initial wave of anti-handwavium panic drove what was likely a significant fraction of that entire segment of the population, from students through experienced professionals, into exile in space?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[robkelk]

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded -- here and there, now and then -- are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as "bad luck."

from The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

But that's rather too dystopic for Fenspace...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[M Fnord]

It's also a huge mound of Ayn Rand horseshit, but then that's Lazarus Long for you - one should not take the word of a known con artist as gospel.

Meanwhile, at the secret evil lair of evil commies, First Secretary Fnord had this comment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm_GPkOfVKI
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

It does hold a grain of truth, though - if one removes the creative minority from a population, that population ceases to be creative... until they develop a new (different or replacement) creative minority.

How long will that take? Edit: Keeping in mind the creative minority of countries that have an interest in seeing the US succeed (Canada, UK, Australia, etc.) hasn't left en masse...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Dartz]

Simple really.... the majority probably don't.

People stay down for a lot of reasons. Family ties. Mortgage commitments. Loyalty. Work contracts. A lot of people dream of jacking it all in while at the same time, the idea of losing everything they've worked so hard and risking it all on a dangerous frontier is a wonderful chilling effect. Education for the kids? Contact with relatives. Looking after the Granny.... a thousand perfectly good and decent reasons to limit experiences of Fenspace to a 2 week holiday, and maybe a Popular Mechanics special every now and then.

I could snark over the US education system having much the same effect, but I won't.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?