US Brain Drain
Last Updated on Tuesday, 29 November 2011 10:02
Written by dbhalling Tuesday, 29 November 2011 10:02 |
I have been predicting that the United States is suffering a brain drain. I have reported on this phenomena several times including my post Phil the Expat, which discusses a highly skilled scientist moving to Belize and Exodus From the US, which discussed a person with strong marketing and computer skills moving to Argentina. Well I now have another story to add to the US brain drain. I just meet a person who was a professor at an Ivy League school in the school of 
Medicine. He has decided to move to New Zealand to start a company around some new technology he has developed for the medical field. Just over a decade ago it would have been inconceivable that you would leave the US to create a technology startup. Now SOX has killed off the venture capital market in the US and the patent system is so bogged down that your company can die a thousand deaths before the Patent Office issues a patent. We are no longer the land of opportunity for highly skilled and motivated people. This is a bad sign for the US economy and for our future.
http://www.baldwins.com/new-zealand-makes-sweeping-changes-to-patent-law
I found this 2008 article on changes made to the New Zealand patent law. Some of the items are things you have written in opposition to. So if this didn’t stop him from going to New Zealand I guess SOX gets all the blame in this case. Perhaps there are other economic benefits as well.
Matt,
Interesting points. I think there are always many things that affect the decision to become and expat. But the overall state of the economy is highest. SOX and changes to our patent laws have significantly hurt out economy. 12 years ago we had the best patent law and system in the world, now we are no better or worse. Our out of control spending, a president who hates success, threats of significantly increased taxes, changes to our medical system, all could have contributed to this persons decision.
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