Over the last 20 years, America has benefited massively from unusually robust growth, low unemployment and inflation, and received hundreds of billions of dollars in investment—much of it from rising powers like China. These are not signs of fundamental economic collapse.
在过去的20年里,美国从其异常强劲的经济增长,低失业率和通货膨胀中获得可观收益,并得到其他国家数千亿美元的投资,这些资金大部分来自于一些新兴大国,如中国。这种种迹象并没有预示着其基础经济即将崩溃。
The United States is currently ranked as the globe’s most competitive economy by the World Economic Forum. It remains dominant in many industries of the future like nanotechnology, biotechnology, and dozens of smaller high-tech fields. Its universities are the finest in the world.
世界经济论坛认为美国是目前为止全球最具竞争力的经济体。它将仍然在未来的许多行业,如纳米技术、生物技术和很多规模较小的高新技术领域占据主导地位。美国的大学也是世界上最顶尖的高级学府。
There’s been a lot of discussion about a recent statistic that in 2000, 950,000 engineers graduated in China and India, while only 70,000 graduated in the U.S. But those numbers are wildly off the mark. If you exclude the car mechanics and repairmen—who are all counted as engineers in Chinese and Indian statistics—it turns out, the United States trains more engineers per capita than either of the Asian giants.
最近一项统计结果显示,2000年,有95万工程师毕业于中国和印度,而美国只有7万。对此,人们讨论颇多。但这些数字与真实情况相比,其实有很大偏差。在中国和印度,汽车修理工和其他修理工都算作工程师,但如果将他们都排除在外的话,你会发现,美国的人均工程师数目比这两个亚洲大国任何一个都要多。
The real issue is that most of these American engineers are immigrants. Foreign students and immigrants account for almost 50 percent of all science researchers in the United States. In 2000, they received 40 percent of all Ph.D.’s.
它的真正的问题在于,这些美国工程师大多数是移民。外国学生和移民几乎占了美国所有科学研究人员的百分之五十。2000年,在所有的博士学位获得者中,这些人占了百分之四十。
When these graduates settle in the U.S., they create economic opportunity. Half of all Silicon Valley start-ups have one founder who is an immigrant or first-generation American. The potential for a new burst of American productivity depends not on our education system or R&D spending, but on our immigration policies. If these people are allowed to come to the U.S. and then encouraged to stay, then innovation will happen here. If they leave, they’ll take it with them.
而当这些毕业生在美国定居,他们即会创造经济机会。有一半硅谷新兴公司的创始人是移民或第一代美国人。促进美国生产能力新爆发的潜力,不是取决于我们的教育体系或R&D支出,而在于我们的移民政策。如果允许这些移民来美国,并鼓励他们定居,那么他们会给美国带来创新,而如果他们离开,他们也将会把伴随他们的创新力带走。
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