"The kind of people who have jobs at Bell Labs and the 6.7m unemployed are probably pretty disjoint."
The point of the article was that small subset of people who have jobs at research labs create a disproportionate amount of jobs and wealth. The author was not implying that basic research jobs could generate millions of jobs on their own. However, the results of the basic research eventually result in the creation of millions of jobs (e.g. invention of transistor leading to an explosion of jobs in the computer industry. etc.). The article's point is that the only way we are going to be able to generate enough high paying jobs to sustain our standard of living and position in the world is through the investment into basic research.
Too bad.
"The kind of people who have jobs at Bell Labs and the 6.7m unemployed are probably pretty disjoint."
The point of the article was that small subset of people who have jobs at research labs create a disproportionate amount of jobs and wealth. The author was not implying that basic research jobs could generate millions of jobs on their own. However, the results of the basic research eventually result in the creation of millions of jobs (e.g. invention of transistor leading to an explosion of jobs in the computer industry. etc.). The article's point is that the only way we are going to be able to generate enough high paying jobs to sustain our standard of living and position in the world is through the investment into basic research.