For countries to compete economically in the 21st century, support for fundamental research in science and engineering needs to be an integral part of policymaking. China, India, Singapore, Korea and numerous other countries are devoting billions to building up their research enterprises, and in numerous cases are beginning to outstrip the West. One of the problems in North America is that major science funding agencies have become fixated on devoting resources to addressing perceived social justice issues, drawing key funding away from the science enterprise itself.