On A Monday Morning -- Thinking Of "Lost Einsteins": Why Math (And Income) Matters, So So Much.

The morning's NYT editorial here is a very worthy read. Its object lesson is about the accelerating of net-worth disparity -- and income-inequality effects -- in the proposed tax packages. I still doubt anything will be signed into law -- but even if there is no tax measure (for 45 to ultimately sign), we should all be very concerned about the continuing and accelerating income- and net-worth inequality -- in America.

Our greatness -- as a leader in the world -- relies upon our ability to be first in the sciences, to a very large degree. And we are choosing (via 45). . . to relinquish that lead. Here's a bit of the opinion piece I mentioned -- do go read it all.

. . . .Much of human progress depends on innovation. It depends on people coming up with a breakthrough idea to improve life. Think about penicillin or cancer treatments, electricity or the silicon chip.

For this reason, societies have a big interest in making sure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to become scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs. It’s not only a matter of fairness. Denying opportunities to talented people can end up hurting everyone. . . .

[The latest Stanford research] looks at who becomes an inventor — and who doesn’t. The results are disturbing. They have left me stewing over how many breakthrough innovations we have missed because of extreme inequality. The findings also make me even more frustrated by new tax legislation that will worsen inequality. This Congress is solving economic problems that don’t exist and aggravating those that do. . . .

Not surprisingly, children who excelled in math were far more likely to become inventors. But being a math standout wasn’t enough. Only the top students who also came from high-income families had a decent chance to become an inventor.

This fact may be the starkest: Low-income students who are among the very best math students — those who score in the top 5 percent of all third graders — are no more likely to become inventors than below-average math students from affluent families. . . .

Let that sink in: there are generations of "lost Ramanujans" (see image at right) out there: picking your fruit -- waiting your tables (and like Einstein, himself) working at the Post Office. . . because they lack access to the capital needed to prepare and file a patent application, and start a company. To be sure, the problem is more complex than just throwing money at very bright math students -- yes, there are many layers to this onion. But that layer stops (or Trumps, if you will) all others.

I know my readers realize -- as a life science innovation matter -- when we adopt (or grudgingly accept) policies that favor only the very richest, without any reasonable doubt, we are consigning entire generations of potential future Einsteins and Ramanujans to work that is sub-optimal for their estimable gifts. And we as a society will lose our place as the innovator to the world, in the hard sciences, as a plain result of this choice. And it is a choice.

Doubly so, where (as here, at this point in history) our sitting president would exclude the importation of entire generations of the best mathematicians, as well. We should be alarmed. And we should act -- to blunt his agenda.

नमस्ते