tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post2949303542089069314..comments2024-03-18T22:21:33.261-07:00Comments on The Debate Link: Discrimination HurtsDavid Schraubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946653376744012423noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-71643674410059378282007-09-03T13:41:00.000-07:002007-09-03T13:41:00.000-07:00This sentence struck me as stupid:This yearly exod...This sentence struck me as stupid:<BR/><I>This yearly exodus is motivated by highly personal reasons but it has a powerful common effect: a brain drain from key parts of the US economy at a time when corporate America is struggling to recruit talent to compete with low-cost rivals from emerging markets. </I> Unless people are leaving those parts of the economy or the U.S. altogether, it cannot properly be described as "brain drain." That's like saying big law firms suffer a "brain drain" because there's massive turnover -- except a lot of the people end up going from one big law firm to a different big law firm. (I have a friend who was disappointed with the firm at which she was a summer associate because they were inattentive to dietary needs, both hers as a vegetarian's and also those of people with religious restrictions; she's currently interviewing with several otherwise identical big law firms that she's presumably vetting for vegetarian-friendliness.) I expect the same thing happened with the Arab-American at the bank; he left that particular banking company and went to a different one that seemed more welcoming.<BR/><BR/>The better point to be made in the article is that for each person who leaves, the <I>individual company</I> loses the investment in that person's training that may be specific to the company and not useful in the next job, and aggregated over a whole industry or economy, that's a lot of money lost.PGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09381347581328622706noreply@blogger.com