[anon721656321]

I think there is a degree of trade off in this, yes a nuclear scientist/engineer/technician in Russia or China is cheaper than in the USA. But also, the people with those kind of skills (or those technically competent enough to do a good job, are going to be expensive no matter what.)

At some level when people have enough technical skill to do these jobs well, they also have enough technical skill to leave the country and go elsewhere and do something else for better quality of life.

Like GDP per capita in china is much lower than the USA, I bet that their nuclear program engineers are getting paid at least ~80k range, which while less than the equivalent engineer in the USA is paid, is not the same level as what a direct PPP comparison would give.

[kelipso]

There are a lot of software engineers in UK who made $50k or less who could have presumably moved to the US a make a lot more but never did. Lots of government employees making much less than they could. Patriotism, wanting to live in their own country, wanting to work on interesting things, etc.