Numbers? America has always been an immigrant country, from its very founding (even the Ameri-indians crossed a bridge to get here). There is nothing to compare against; high-end STEM has never been dominated by American-only talent. So all we have is world supply vs. world demand to go on, and what can we tell from that?<p>I made about $1300&#x2F;month as a PhD student at the end of the 90s&#x2F;early 00s. But in exchange, I got to do the research I wanted to, it was a fair exchange for me. If you are in it just for the money, I guess it doesn&#x27;t make much sense, but then you don&#x27;t need a PhD anyways. I&#x27;m also one of the odd balls who is an American CS PhD graduate working for an American company in...China. Turns out, those high-end research jobs really can move from the US to another country (before China, I was in Switzerland)!