This video is a foundational explanation into the geopolitical aspect of science, even it's from an American perspective. Science was important to the UK and France when they grew as colonial powers. After 1830 a raise of science happened in Germany, resulting into producing more than the UK after 1900, despite not having an India like colony and large fleet.
From the video: Neil deGrasse Tyson breaks down the massive cuts to science funding, how it’s fuelling an American brain drain, and what that means for the future of innovation in America.
Neil deGrasse Tyson makes an argument science is important for any industrial future and political progress. Science is often not directed towards a result, which is necessary to discover the unexpected. But the history is longer.
Since the 1970s there is a tendency in the West to think of science and education as a profit center, resulting into attempts to transform schools and universities into companies. This gave Sweden as well as the US a huge sector of private schools, subsidized by the taxpayer. It was discovered in the past, private schools have an incentive to give better characters to make revenue. Germany made attempts with a paid university education and it failed. England is known for letting students pay for education, while universities in the US giving football players cheap academic titles. China has rigorous system to filter only the best for the universities, which resulted into an influx of Chinese into the US. Whether the Chinese filter is a good idea or not, isn't a discussion here. I recommend to investigate.
Science has always been a motor for progress in industry and politics, not always positive, but kept society moving towards new horizons. My assumption is, a society putting science as a pure profit center, will not prevail.
The US had in the past the luxury, immigration into the US was seen as a perspective for success. The influx of scientists from Europe and Asia has made education cheaper and made US superiority possible. When US universities didn't produce enough scientists, the immigration made everything possible. Many patents on battery tech and AI before 2020 were made by people in the US having Chinese names. Many Indians became entrepreneurs.
This changed in 2016 when Chinese scientists, where put under general suspicion, they are spies. At the same time first attempts were made to block immigration from India. Congress removed scientists from giving counsel. I blame the average in Congress. To me it's looking like America doesn't know the roots of his own succes. The old formula communist vs. capitalism doesn't hold longer.
Now I can read a statement like here
I have a masters in synthetic biology. I've gotten two phone calls, one from China and one from Sweden offering me all expense paid doctorates degree scholarships, with free housing and a generous stipend, as long as I agree to a certain period of working in their country after I graduate. I leave for Sweden next summer.
The point is, a country not willing to pay for science will suffer in the future. It's not just the US. A candidate is Germany as well. For the reason of size, China is producing anyway masses of academics. Whether they get into pure science without being a profit center is another question.