I didn't mean to belittle your educational achievements and I'm sorry if I did. The point I was making is if your country or business is pushing to build advanced rockets, quantum computing, help Tesla build its AI, and fill hundreds of leading research in sciences you will need a PhD or 2 to conduct fundamental and applied research.
This article details China's increasing growth in STEM PhD graduates over the US:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michae...a-in-production-of-stem-phds/?sh=f63b90a46067
More importantly though, about 120,000 US PhD STEM graduates are foreign students, mostly from India and China.
Again, the point I'm trying to make is that in order to remain competitive, the US must rethink its education system. Attracting foreign students worked for 60 years and is preferred by those who don't want to spend fed dollars on education. But supply and demand in education is showing its limitations. Our population is under educated, particularly in STEM, from the kids early years.
Every country in the world provides free or near free education to its citizens, except the US which charges nearly $400k for the privilege of reaching the summit of a STEM PhD. We are a shooting ourselves in the foot.
But the cynicism is that those against free education are those who can afford to send their kids to college and don't want the sudden competition for college entry and later for jobs that a free education would bring.