Is China Going to Kick Our Butts?
I just read an article that scared the bejeebers out of me.
As little respect as we get, engineers are the reason the U.S. has grown economically since the end of World War II.
Engineers create products that fill (and sometimes create) needs, whether they're televisions, computers, cars, airplanes, iPods, hard drives, CD players, GPS navigation systems, carbon-fiber bicycle frames, Tivos or cell phones.
However, the U.S. graduates fewer engineers (as a percentage of total collage graduates) than our competition.
Here are the stats:
United States
Total College Degrees: 1,253,121
Total Engineering Degrees: 59,536
4.7%
Kenya
Total College Degrees: 15,620
Total Engineering Degrees: 740
4.7%
United Kingdom
Total College Degrees: 274,440
Total Engineering Degrees: 20,280
7.4%
Ireland
Total College Degrees: 18,669
Total Engineering Degrees: 2,014
10.8%
France
Total College Degrees: 275,316
Total Engineering Degrees: 34,293
12.4%
Japan
Total College Degrees: 542,314
Total Engineering Degrees: 104,478
19.3 %
Germany
Total College Degrees: 178,618
Total Engineering Degrees: 36,319
20.3 %
Taiwan
Total College Degrees: 117,430
Total Engineering Degrees: 26,587
22.6 %
China
Total College Degrees: 567,839
Total Engineering Degrees: 219,563
38.7 %
We're tied with that other economic superpower, Kenya.
The U.S. may soon not have the ability to design or build anything, but with our plethora of lawyers and mortgage brokers, we can sue you and take your house.
posted by The Phantom Republican @ 9:05 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
There's that old adage about lies, damn lies and statistics.
I (obviously, as a fellow engineer) agree that we're a driving force in the economy, unsung heroes, if you will. I'm not quite sure what to make of the Chinese engineers, for a few reasons:
1. what *else* are they going to major in? not like there's much need for political scientists, lawyers, theater majors, etc. A hard-science degree is much more "politically safe" than say, "international religious studies".
2. China's leadership has been (for quite some time) pretty top-heavy with technocrats. Just because they get an engineering degree doesn't mean they'll go work on something engineering-related. They could just be angling for a sweet government job.
3. I'd be curious to find out how many of those engineers are in the "public works" sector, building dams and roads and things like that. There's a huge need for basic infrastructure all over that country. Those guys aren't the ones who will "kick our butts".
and finally,
4. As you well know, it's a quantity vs. quality debate. They can churn out all the engineers they want, but where are their truly revolutionary innovators? It's easy enough to optimize something that someone else has already invented. Not so much coming up with something completely new on your own.
Anyway, random thoughts. I'm not an expert on chinese matters by any means...
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