You missed the part where they do it for a fraction of the salary.

I suggest there's a kind of 'cultural imperative' in Korea that is so different from the US that it doesn't even begin to factor into our equations.

My Korean grad school colleagues went to intern at Samsung for serf pay, the only way that could work is if there was some kind of culturally implied merit.

The US also needs a 'different kind of ethos' to compete in semiconductor, Cali Surfer Vibes won't cut it, neither will NY banker vibes, neither will SF Social Media AI Allbirds vibes, nor Cambridge High Intellectual Healthcare Conference vibes, nor Texas Energy Industry or DC Government Consultant etc..

And that will be impossible without a fair number of migrants who will be mostly Asian - so where is this going to happen?

Maybe they need a 'New South Valley' about 50Km south of San Jose, a cross between Orange County, Silicon Valley, Cambridge, and Seoul aka Cali, but slightly more formally regimented, a bit like the actual old-school Silicon Valley which was at the time, away from the buzz, a bit of a sleepy burb where people focused on hard stuff and economics mattered.