How far behind are we?


Not all that much at all
Sebastian Mallaby takes a close look.

The science lobby should also stop pretending that countries compete the same way companies do. Firms such as Toyota and Ford really do go head-to-head against each other; if Toyota has superior technology, it will steal Ford's customers -- and Ford may even disappear. But if China produces Nobel-quality science, it won't put the United States out of business; rather, Chinese discoveries will help American scientists discover more, too. Equally, Toyota doesn't sell cars to Ford workers, so there's no benefit to Ford's people if Toyota's quality advances. But China does sell to Americans, so whatever makes it more productive has some upside for the United States as well.

In short, the "China threat" argument ignores the ways that competition between countries, unlike companies, is a positive-sum game. Moreover, to the extent that Chinese institutions -- firms or university laboratories -- compete against American ones, the alarmists underestimate U.S. strengths.

In the race to turn scientific ideas into businesses, the United States is hard to beat. There's no dividing wall between academic labs and commerce, and scientists surf from one world to the other on waves of money and cultural approval. Harvard's Richard Freeman, an economist who has studied the market for scientific talent, recounts a conversation with a physicist who'd collaborated with foreigners. "Ah, so you are helping them to catch up with us," Freeman commented. "No, they are helping us keep ahead of them," came back the answer: Because of the superior U.S. business environment, the research was being turned into a company in the United States.

When it comes to science, I see it as one of the benefits of globalization. If it is cheaper to pay to have it done somewhere else and everyone gets to share the benefits, what is the down side?

— NeoWayland

Posted: Mon - February 6, 2006 at 04:44 AM  Tag


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