US relaxes visa rules for foreign scholars

The Financial Times says that US relaxes visa rules for foreign scholars because

Academics and business leaders have warned that the US risked losing its position as the top destination for promising international students with its onerous visa process. Microsoft's Bill Gates and General Electric's Jeffrey Immelt have added their voices to warnings that tighter visa controls introduced after the September 11 attacks were harming the US's economic interests.

Emphasis Mine

The hegemonic power of the USA relies upon its technological and scientific supremency.

John W. Steadman of the IEEE-USA was more forthright in his letter to the US Congress, Re: S. 1635, the L-1 (Intra-Company Transferee) Visa Reform Act of 17 September 2004,

We agree that it is contrary to the long-term competitiveness of the United States to train the world’s best and brightest in cutting edge science and engineering disciplines and then send them home with taxpayer subsidized knowledge and skill to compete against U.S. companies. But giving foreign graduates of U.S. educational programs a temporary work visa doesn’t resolve this problem, it just postpones it while they acquire even more valuable experience and business contacts. A better approach would be to improve the nation’s permanent immigration system and put talented students on a fast track to U.S. citizenship, instead of consigning them to second-class status on a temporary work visa.

What is so amazing about this is that the US educational system is in decay due to the encroachments of the Religious Right through the suppression of the teaching of evolution and liberal ideas. Indeed, this change to the visa rules is only a temporary fix while the US educational system decays into obsolence.

This would be a contradiction within the capitalist system. Education is needed to maintain the technological and scientific lead but education must be suppressed to maintain control of the population. So what the US ruling class wants is a imagitative, unthinking drone.