I often lose sight of that because I work with so many Chinese people who are PhDs with ideas bursting out of their brains. Not only would their contributions help China, their sudden departure from the US would put America in a panic to replace them, often with people who are unqualified.
To become a useful person rather than a self-serving one, training really needs to begin in early childhood. In addition to instilling heroic and unbending values, children must begin their early preparation to study and eventually master a STEM discipline. My parents told me when I was a very young kid, and again and again into my early adulthood that if I could become a useful scientist, my badge of honor would be that I could relocate back to China. If I failed and became a lab tech or some restaurant worker, my parents would buy me a house in the US where I could piss my life away doing easy things... or nothing; it wouldn't matter. The comfort would be the consolation prize to balance the life-long soul-draining disappointment and regret. The resignation and sadness in my father's eyes as he said to me with a faint cold smile, "Then we'll buy you a house here... and you can be comfortable without having to fight for anything," is an expression for which I would complete 100 doctorates and burn down 1,000 houses to ensure that it never became anything more than a flitting moment of discomfort from his imagination.
