A Galt's Gulch No More

What accounts for the R&D dominance of the US between 1900 and the present day? Why were we able to be the first to make a nuclear bomb, reach the moon, invent the transistor, before all the other developed nations? Is it the much vaunted (during this campaign) small town folks from the "heartland"? No.

In Atlas Shrugged, Rand introduced the idea of a haven for productive members of society. One safe from tyranny, protective of intellect and ingenuity. The US has been such a "Galt's Gulch". But we are swiftly surrendering this.

It may be hard to swallow, but most of our innovation comes to us in the form of brilliant foreigners, who find solace in the relatively unfettered scientific environment in this country. The ultimate example would be all the physicists who came from Germany just before WWII. These days, many of the most brilliant minds come from China, a country which is brutally dictatorial that nonetheless sends us its students because we currently have the best institutions of learning.

And yet, do we invite these people to stay? Those who legally immigrated, contribute a competent PhD to our complement of R&D workers---do we solicit them to please not take the education we've given them back to China? Do we even let the ones who want to stay do so?

Sadly, we do not. As George Will points out, "140,000 employment-based green cards are available annually, and 1 million educated professionals are waiting".

While both major party candidates are already fomenting the idea of amnesty for the millions of those comparatively worthless workers whose first act in this nation is to break its laws by brazenly jumping over the border, perhaps we should take time to welcome those hard-working people who came here because they felt it held the promise of Galt's Gulch; If not, it's time to turn in our superpower card.