MA Governor Wants More New Tech

turnitover writes "Cryptically stating that Asia wants the U.S. to become 'the France of the 21st century,' Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney made a public call for more innovation in technology, reports eWEEK.com. He urged more investment and development and, yes, a move to OpenDocument, as reported previously on Slashdot." From the article: "Underlining the challenge, Romney said leaders of one technology firm in Massachusetts anticipated that 90 percent of its skilled labor would be in Asia in 10 years. He also pointed to statistics that show the United States graduating only 4,400 mathematics and science PhDs each year compared with 24,900 math and science PhDs for greater Asia."

Comments

Too little, too late?

[blastard]

Romney needed to act on this 3-4 years ago.
I've been part of the tech downturn at the time. Many of my ex-co-workers left the state because there were too few opportunities.

The state spent lots of money paying unemployment insurance, and the unemployed were effectively prevented from starting up their own companies because they would lose benefits the day they registered their company.

All these well qualified individuals could not use their skills during that time. Instead, they left for less costly pastures.

Massachusetts was the only state to lose population in 2004. And it wasn't losing those on the dole.

Getting a PhD doesn't pay anymore

[geneing]

Just yesterday I read in my university newspaper that NSF did a study and found that getting a PhD in science and engineering doesn't really pay anymore. On average you do earn more if you have a doctorate degree, but you never recoop the earnings you lost while earning your degree. I think the conclusion that economists would make is that there is an oversupply of PhD's.

Many would say that you don't get a doctorate degree for the money alone. It was not the main motivation for me either.