University of Toronto Snags Yale Professors as Canada Raids American Brain Trust

I find this generally a narrative that is easy to buy into but I wonder how many will actually make the jump. I’m unsure about salaries in Canada but I’ve heard some American academics talking about moving to Europe to find academic jobs there.<p>i think the salary would kill the idea for most americans who would want to move. according to this chart:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;oira.unc.edu&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;sites&#x2F;297&#x2F;2024&#x2F;05&#x2F;Faculty-Salaries-at-Research-and-AAU-Universities-2023-24_20240426.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;oira.unc.edu&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;sites&#x2F;297&#x2F;2024&#x2F;05&#x2F;Fa...</a><p>the average assistant professor makes around 100k usd a year.<p>the salary range in Norway which typically has some of the highest salaries in Europe for university of Oslo assistant professor would be around rank 73-75 (you are not typically eligible to be hired above 78 and in practice above 75) on this chart which is around 69-70k usd:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.uio.no&#x2F;english&#x2F;for-employees&#x2F;employment&#x2F;payments&#x2F;salary-tables-and-rates&#x2F;a-table&#x2F;a-tabell-2023.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.uio.no&#x2F;english&#x2F;for-employees&#x2F;employment&#x2F;payments...</a><p>Norway has some of the highest salaries in europe outside of switzerland (although its debatable since cost of living in switzerland is so high). how many people would be willing to take a 25-30% salary reduction to move across the world? and that is the minimum salary decrease as the percentage only increases when you go to other countries where salaries are lower.<p>Not to mention they will need to learn a new language to be a professor since they need to teach. And also the academic system is different in that most places have more hierarchy than USA whether it is implicit or explicit. So they have to learn to navigate that too.<p>I think people will find Canada a much more attractive target destination than elsewhere for these reasons. But I also think most won’t actually move they will just discuss it. Happy to be wrong though.

The brain drain out of Canada has been massive, and for decades. It&#x27;s going to take more than some random Yale prof to reverse that.

The opportunity cost of moving to Canada is too great for professionals in STEM, medicine, economics, or law. However, that opportunity cost seems to be less significant for professionals in the humanities. Ironically, the Project 2025 writers are probably salivating at the idea that the US sees an exodus of liberal academics in the humanities.

Given the choice, I would move also. No reason for any of the US top intellectuals to stay here.<p>I am not a prof, I had a similar opportunity 40 years ago, but it was a different time back then. Now, I would have jumped.

These are the times that try men&#x27;s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country.

One of Germany&#x27;s biggest mistakes in WWII was pushing out scientists &#x2F; intellectuals and I fear the US is headed down the same road. Between anti-intellectualism in general, political censorship, and the new Gestapo rounding up student immigrants there&#x27;s less and less reason for smart people to come to the US or stay and put up with it.

The administration has been totally against facts and science from the first term itself but this time around they started the full descent into idiocracy. The people picked to run agencies, full frontal proclamations by the director of the fbi to go after media entities, catering to the lowest common denominators in their base by making a mockery of the law. All of them are just distractions, the fact that the richest and most powerful corporations, universities and previously reputable news organizations are keeling over, these are canaries in the coal mine. All of this will have a lasting impact on the valley and the U.S. in general, if we are honest about it.<p>As a person in tech, this time around the tech community gave up on innovation and independence, they are the first to pander to the administration. I cannot imagine the same thing happening a decade or two ago. Something fundamentally changed here in the Valley. I take it as a signal that the powers be don’t believe in AI revolution and that they just want to make a quick buck while they can