Bingo, Podrock.. Two failed US Presidents, a Palestinian revolutionary, two Soviet apparatchiks, and an Iranian nutjob.

China is particularly interesting, not only in the Politburo, but thoughout the entire current generation of Chinese leadership, engineers, scientists and other technocrats predominate. We can speculate on the causes: China puts great stress on technical progress, industrial managers who can get measurable production results are favored in the bureaucracy, and engineering/science was a safe place to be for young people growing up in the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.

But for whatever the reason, we should get a good idea of how a capitalist technocracy will look by watching the PRC for the next few decades. In the US, leaders in government come mostly from the legal profession, and those in business are increasingly from the professional manager caste (MBAs, finance weenies, and marketing drones).

I confess I have edited the following factoids cribbed from Wikipedia to emphasize my point (please check them for yourself). But the trends are nonetheless alarming.

As of 2011, 28% of graduate students in science, engineering, and health are foreign.

Foreign students make up a much higher proportion of S&E master’s degree recipients than of bachelor’s or associate’s degree recipients.

In 2009, foreign students earned 27% of S&E master’s degrees and 33% in doctorate degrees. 55% of Ph.D. students in engineering in the United States are foreign born (2004).

Between 1980 and 2000, the percentage of Ph.D. scientists and engineers employed in the United States who were born abroad has increased from 24% to 37%.

45% of Ph.D. physicists working in the United States are foreign born (2004).

80% of total post-doctoral chemical and materials engineering in the United States are foreign-born (1988).

The proportion of foreign-born engineers among assistant professors younger than 35 years has increased from 10% in 1972 to 50%-55% in 1983-1985, illustrating a dramatic increase on US dependence on foreign-born students in the US college system. The increase in non-citizen assistant professors of engineering is the result of the fact that, in recent years, foreign-born engineers received close to 50 percent of newly awarded engineering doctorates (naturalized citizens accounted for about 4 percent) and, furthermore, they entered academe in disproportionately large numbers.

33% of all U.S. Ph.D.s in science and engineering are now awarded to foreign born graduate students (2004).

In 1982, foreign-born engineers constituted about 3.6% of all engineers employed in the United States, 13.9% of which were naturalized; and foreign-born Phds in Engineering constituted 15% and 20% were naturalized. In 1985, foreign-born Phds represented almost 33% of the engineering post-doctorate researchers in US universities. Foreign-born Phd engineers often accept postdoctoral position because other employment is unavailable until green card is obtained. A system that further incentivising replacement of US-citizens in the upper echelons of academic and private sector engineering firms due to higher educational attainment relative to native-born engineer who for the most part do train beyond undergraduate level.

In recent years, The number of applicants for faculty openings at research universities have increased dramatically. Numbers of 50 to 200 applications for a single faculty opening have become typical, yet even with such high numbers of applicants have yielded a foreign-born component in excess of 50%.

An astounding 60 percent of the top science students in the United States and 65 percent of the top math students are the children of immigrants. In addition, foreign-born high school students make up 50 percent of the 2004 U.S.Math Olympiad’s top scorers, 38 percent of the U.S. Physics Team, and 25 percent of the Intel Science Talent Search finalists—the United States’ most prestigious awards for young scientists and mathematicians.

Among 1985 foreign-born engineering doctorate holders, about 40% expected to work in the United States after graduating. An additional 17 percent planned to stay on as post-doctorates, and most of these are likely to remain permanently in the United States. Those, almost 60% of foreign-born engineering doctorate holders are likely to become part of the US engineering labor force within a few years after graduating. The other approximately 40% of foreign born engineering Phds mostly likely find employment working for Multinational corporations outside of the US.

In the 2004 Intel Science Talent Search, more children have parents who entered the country on H-1B (professional) visas than parents born in the United States (16). To place this finding in perspective, note that new H-1B visa holders each year represent less than 0.04 percent of the U.S. population.

Foreign born faculty now accounts for over 50% of faculty in engineering (1994).

27 out the 87 (more than 30%) American Nobel Prize winners in Medicine and Physiology between 1901 and 2005 were born outside the US

The size of the pool of BS engineering graduates with US citizenship is much larger than the number who apply to engineering graduate schools.

Between 1980 and 2000, the percentage of Ph.D. scientists and engineers employed in the United States who were born abroad has increased from 24% to 37%.

45% of Ph.D. physicists working in the United States are foreign born (2004).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_born_scientists_and_engineers_in_the_United_States

Meanwhile, American-born and highly experienced techies, like TB and myself, are finding it increasingly harder to find employment.