Letting China or other foreign nations invent the next great technologies and then buying it from them sounds to me an lot like outsourcing R&D. The US already outsourced much of its manufacturing, if we outsource the R&D as well what jobs will remain in the US? Surely we cannot become a nation of middle managers.

Ah, i see the mistake. You read what I said as: it’s ok if they invent it because they’ll make it and sell it to us. What I was saying is the opposite. Even if we invent it we will ship production off to china and loose any control, expertise, and skill within a decade max.

Without building a foundation where we can both invent AND produce things at home, chasing invention is a loosing game.