Unless immigration laws are changed here and the "race to the bottom" mentaliy is erased, Asian born engineers will continue to underbid native Amereican engineers.

That is a new and interesting idea. It is all the fault of immigrants.

I'm sure there are some actual Native American engineers who would agree with you, but maybe not for the reasons you would like.

There are many long term projects that this country needs to undertake for its own good and for the safety and quality of life of its citizens. Our infrastructure is crumbling, we need renewable energy sources and a smart grid, our coastal cities are all in danger of destruction by a major hurricane.

That sounds like we have too few engineers, not too many.

Maybe — I know, this is a radical idea but bear with me — maybe the issue is with our civic priorities and our decisions as citizens, and not with the people who came over on this boat instead of the last boat.

You want a third world mentality, there is nothing more third world than preferring — insisting on — inter-ethnic squabbles over the crumbs left over from social collapse, because cowpoking up and working to make your society a better place for everyone involves living in a productive society alongside those people.

As for federal fiscal responsibility, though, I couldn't agree more.

Ah, yes. The terrible state of poverty of the fallen British Empire.

Their strategery has clearly failed and should not be emulated.

Are you seriously contending that the modern UK remains an industrial manufacturing powerhouse?

The modern British economy is oriented around engineering, high technology, research, fashion, and financial services — run by those pesky scholars, educated workers, and service professionals who are such a plague on our economy and produce no actual value — as well as fossil fuel extraction, just for a kick in the shins.

They do not "make actual things," any more than we do.

And as we have chosen, as a society, to dismantle that social organization ...

Funny, I don't remember being asked if that was OK with me.

(Emphasis added.)

Well, maybe not, but lots of people support things like regressive tax structures, privatized social services, and corporate monopolies because they see those things as benefiting themselves in the narrowest sense, while in the broad sense they degrade the fabric of our society.

So that is a choice. In fact it's the one that counts.