History Main / BrainDrain

* In the InteractiveFiction game ''The Lost Spellmaker'', all of the spellmakers (people who, well... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin make spells]], for the entertainment of the masses) from the PC's town and the other villages nearby are mysteriously disappearing. It turns out they're being stolen by the nearby city of Plantasitoy. Given that Plantasitoy is [[SignificantAnagram an anagram]] for UsefulNotes/PlayStation, one could easily read this as a metaphor.

->''"Why stick around and be the victim of a political witch hunt when you could escape to the private sector: a fatter paycheck, decent hours, and maybe, just maybe, [[DudeWheresMyRespect a little respect and appreciation by the people you work for?]] We lost a lot of good men and women, a lot of experience, initiative, and priceless analytical reasoning. All we were left with were the dregs, a bunch of brownnosing, myopic eunuchs."''

->''"Why stick around and be the victim of a political witch hunt when you could escape to the private sector: a fatter paycheck, decent hours, and maybe, just maybe, a little respect and appreciation by the people you work for? We lost a lot of good men and women, a lot of experience, initiative, and priceless analytical reasoning. All we were left with were the dregs, a bunch of brownnosing, myopic eunuchs."''

* This happened to the CIA in the backstory of ''Literature/WorldWarZ''. They were scapegoated for [[NoodleIncident a recent "brushfire war" that the USA fought that apparently didn't go well]] (not explicitly stated to be the Second Gulf War and the ultimately fruitless hunt for all those weapons of mass destruction that Iraq was allegedly stockpiling, but [[RippedFromTheHeadlines that was clearly what the author had in mind]]), and any information they could defend themselves with was classified. Many fled this hostile treatment and got a better paycheck, to boot. Thus, the CIA was left with mostly incompetents, a bunch of sycophants, and a scant handful of patriots. The major outcome to this was the CIA's inability to see the early warning signs of the ZombieApocalypse.

** A second, similar wave happened in 2022 as a response to the Russian invasion of UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}}; [[DraftDodging not wishing to be called up to fight and risk a very real chance of dying]], as well as wishing to continue to work while not being crushed under sanctions, or really just being opposed to war period, many skilled Russians such as engineers have relocated to unsanctioned nations to continue their trade and make more money than they did in their native Russia.

Organizations such as countries, corporations and {{Ancient Conspirac|y}}ies need a lot of talented people in order to function. Rather than expending resources to find and train "new" experts, a simpler method is to recruit from competitors. After all, if you were offered a clearly better job (however you define that), you'd probably take it, right? Especially if your current situation is unpleasant.

Of course, this can easily result in one of the organizations continually sliding backwards. They lose some talented and competent personnel, and thus become less talented and competent overall, which makes things harder on their remaining personnel, which makes said personnel want to leave even more, and the cycle continues...

This is the phenomenon called "brain drain". It is quite widespread in RealLife, as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_drain the other Wiki can testify]].

In a way, Brain Drain is the opposite of ThePeterPrinciple. However, these are opposites that happily coexist and help each other making life a living hell for those who remain: The talented move on elsewhere, while the less talented gets promoted to positions they are incompetent for, which can easily lead to becoming a PointyHairedBoss. In individual cases, the Peter Principle can also be used to subvert Brain Drain if it turns out that the new guy wasn't so talented after all.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] StupidityInducingAttack, which is about making an individual person dumber.

* Reference is made to the trope in ''Film/TheIpcressFile''. It turns out that another type of brain drain is happening: British scientists are being kidnapped and [[LiteralMetaphor brainwashed to forget their knowledge]].

* A double-shock of Brain Drain affected Russia and former Soviet Bloc countries in the mid 1990s. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, skilled laborers, educated tradesmen, and the intelligentsia saw the opportunities offered by increasingly rich Western and Middle Eastern nations and flocked to work/immigrate in these countries. This is part of what spurred a mid-90s immigration wave into the West and removed a considerable amount of institutional knowledge from the former Soviet Bloc. This left Russia in particular short on extremely valuable trained personnel such as chemical engineers and pharmaceutical developers. A second, similar wave happened in 2022 as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine; not wishing to be called up to fight and risk a very real chance of dying, as well as wishing to continue to work while not being crushed under sanctions, skilled persons such as engineers have relocated to unsanctioned nations to continue their trade and make more money than they did in their native Russia

* BrainDrain is a minor but chronic problem in the American university system. The demand for mid-level instructors constantly outstrips the supply, because in most white-collar fields, private sector employment is far more attractive (in terms of financial compensation and career advancement) than working for a university. Universities often make up their shortfall with foreign graduate students, but this causes a follow-on BrainDrain problem in their native countries.

* ''Manga/ChainsawMan'': [[CreatureHunterOrganization Public Safety]] has a HighTurnoverRate mostly from its [[DemonSlaying devil hunters]] dying or quitting entirely, but another contributing factor is them moving into safer private sector jobs. It's implied most hunters get in the industry through entry level Public Safety positions, and the ones OnlyInItForTheMoney want to get the hell out as soon as they work up their resumé. The ones who stay long-term tend to either have a genuine interest in protecting the people, want {{revenge}} against devilkind, or [[BloodKnight just love fighting]].

In a way, Brain Drain is the opposite of ThePeterPrinciple. However, these are opposites that happily coexist and help each other making life a living hell for those who remain: The talented move on elsewhere, while the less talented [[ThePeterPrinciple gets promoted to positions they are incompetent for]], which can easily lead to becoming a PointyHairedBoss. In individual cases, the Peter Principle can also be used to subvert Brain Drain if it turns out that the new guy wasn't so talented after all.

* Reference is made to the trope in ''Film/TheIpcressFile''. It turns out that another type of brain drain is happening: British scientists are being kidnapped and brainwashed to forget their knowledge.

* Germany was subject to this in ''spades'' before and after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, thanks to the fact that a good number of technical, scientific, and financial experts were Jews. UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein, [[UsefulNotes/QuantumPhysics Enrico Fermi]], [[ILoveNuclearPower Niels Bohr]], and [[UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace Wernher von Braun]], just to name a few, all emigrated to the Western powers before or after the war to escape the Nazi regime. While those who fled before the war did so on their own initiative to escape the Nazis, researchers and other talented individuals who were taken out by the Allies after the war (with or without their consent) were removed because the Allies had no interest (at least initially) in rebuilding Germany's devastated industrial base. Artistically, many film-makers of the Weimar Era Creator/FritzLang, Creator/OttoPreminger, Creator/BillyWilder and many others left for Hollywood upon the rise of the Nazism, as did Creator/MarleneDietrich.

* In ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', this is one of the many issues facing Star City after it goes into an economic tailspin. Many of its businesses close down or relocate to other cities and the city's best and brightest leave for greener pastures. The people who stay behind are either rich enough not to be bothered by this or too poor to leave. This hits the police department especially hard, since the events of the series caused it to have an extremely high casualty rate, so police officers already have a strong incentive to find employment somewhere else. In one instance, an entire elite task force goes rogue because they are desperate to leave the city but cannot afford to pay off their mortgages.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', [[WrongSideOfTheTracks Griffinstone]] is implied to be suffering from this problem by the time of ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E8TheLostTreasureOfGriffonstone The Lost Treasure Of Griffinstone]]", if Gilda's peddling of [[LethalChef griffinscones]] for the sole reason of wanting to earn enough bits to get out of there is any indication -- compare that with the last seen status of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E24MysteryOnTheFriendshipExpress Gustave Le Grande]], who is shown to be a SupremeChef and is far outside Griffinstone in that episode, and the flashbacks in the stories told by Twilight and Grandpa Gruff of [[VestigialEmpire the glory that Griffinstone once was]].

Organizations such as countries, corporations and [[AncientConspiracy Ancient Conspiracies]] need a lot of talented people in order to function. Rather than expending resources to find and train "new" experts, a simpler method is to recruit from competitors. After all, if you were offered a clearly better job (however you define that), you'd probably take it, right? Especially if your current situation is unpleasant.

In a way, Brain Drain is the opposite of ThePeterPrinciple. However these are opposites that happily coexist and help each other making life a living hell for those who remain: The talented move on elsewhere, while the less talented [[ThePeterPrinciple gets promoted to positions they are incompetent for]] - which can easily lead to becoming a PointyHairedBoss.

In individual cases, the Peter Principle can also be used to subvert Brain Drain - as it turns out that the new guy wasn't so talented after all.

[[folder: Film ]]
* Reference is made to the trope in ''Film/TheIpcressFile''. Turns out another type of brain drain is happening -- British scientists are being kidnapped and brainwashed to forget their knowledge.

[[folder: Literature ]]
* In ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' this is [[spoiler:John Galt's major plan: to drain ALL OF AMERICA]]
* This happened to the CIA in the backstory of ''Literature/WorldWarZ''. They were scapegoated for [[NoodleIncident a recent "brushfire war" the USA fought that apparently didn't go well]] (not explicitly stated to be the Second Gulf War and the ultimately fruitless hunt for all those weapons of mass destruction that Iraq was allegedly stockpiling, but [[RippedFromTheHeadlines that was clearly what the author had in mind]]), and any information they could defend themselves with was classified. Many fled this hostile treatment, and got a better paycheck to boot. Thus, the CIA was left with mostly incompetents, a bunch of sycophants, and a scant handful of patriots. The major outcome to this was the CIA's inability to see the early warning signs of the ZombieApocalypse.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* On ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' this is one of the many issues facing Star City after it goes into an economic tailspin. Many of its businesses close down or relocate to other cities and the city's best and brightest leave for greener pastures. The people who stay behind are either rich enough not to be bothered by this or too poor to leave. This hits the police department especially hard since the events of the series caused it to have an extremely high casualty rate so police officers already had a strong incentive to find employment somewhere else. In one instance, an entire elite task force goes rogue because they are desperate to leave the city but cannot afford to pay off their mortgages.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]
* In ''{{ComicStrip/Dilbert}}'', the protagonist works at a company that always seem to be at the losing end of this. Except if you've been there for too long (like Dilbert and Co.) because this company is a black spot on resumes.
** Though [[http://dilbert.com/strip/1995-09-10 one strip]] depicts them doing it to someone else ''just'' to saddle them with an [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption intentional black-spot project]]. And mentions that they've done the same to several others.

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* [[StiffUpperLip Knights of the Golden Rooster]] in ''[[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Raven's Bluff]]'' often complain that other knightly orders tend to "take their best". Or, looking from the other end, being an "entry-level" order for common people and adventurers and a route to higher responsibilities is one of the Roosters' main roles.

[[folder: Video Games ]]
* In the InteractiveFiction game ''The Lost Spellmaker'', all of the spellmakers (people who, well... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin make spells]], for the entertainment of the masses) from the PC's town and the other villages nearby are mysteriously disappearing. It turns out they're being stolen by the nearby city of Plantasitoy. Given that Plantasitoy is [[spoiler:an anagram for UsefulNotes/PlayStation]], one could easily read this as a metaphor.
* This is something of a theme in the ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries''. The world is currently in the grips of the Orbal Revolution, and one or two gifted leaders in the field can make massive strides in industrialization and military progress. Several small nations are actively headhunting these people to give themselves a leg up, while some of the larger, more establishes institutions are clinging to tradition. A good deal of the story's set dressing is framed by the massive power shifts caused by these attitudes as massive empires are suddenly forced to realize they've missed a very important boat and their smaller neighbours are now genuine threats to their borders.

[[folder: Webcomics ]]
* ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'': King Radical and his Mafia prevent the brain drain from occuring in Cumberland, MD, by encouraging high school and college graduates to stay in the area. [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/13p26 Very strongly]] encouraging.
* ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'': Although not specifically related to "brain power", supers who get hired by [[HeroesRUs ARCHON]], the US Military "super" branch, get paid ''[[https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-345-ka-pow-ka-blam-ka-ching/ fantastically well]]''[[note]]and this is just recruit salary![[/note]] to prevent them from going to the private sector, given that they are '''literally''' impossible to replace.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* In one episode of the animated version of ''WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}}'', the protagonist manages to get recruited by Nirvana Corporation, the great company that's always steals the best and brightest from his old company. [[spoiler: of course, StatusQuoIsGod - so at the end of the episode he's back in his old cubicle again.]]
** A later episode had a literal example when Dilbert's company merged with "[[ObviouslyEvil Brainsuck Industries]]", run by a [[StupidityInducingAttack bunch of aliens with suckers in their stomachs]]. Dilbert prevents the deal from going through by taking the Brainsuck CEO to their marketing department. [[TakeThat The marketing people are so dumb the alien starves to death on a full stomach]], causing the aliens to flee.
* On ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' the Globex Corporation tried to hire away Smithers but he wouldn't go for it so they tried the employee with the next highest seniority (and therefore obviously the next best guy) - ''Homer'', who actually turned out to be a hugely valuable employee at Globex, his wacky ideas were given a fair try and made the people he managed more productive. Unfortunately, the CoolHouse Globex gave Homer did all of Marge's work for her, boring her to madness. Bart loved the house, but the quality school Globex built put him in remedial classes with kids every bit as bad as him.[[note]]he got their attention due to not knowing [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin cursive]], but it's implied that Springfield Elementary is actually a ''really'' bad school as Bart also didn't know '''multiplication tables or long division'''[[/note]] Lisa was ecstatic with the house, school and even the town itself... until she discovered that the local wildlife sent her([[DiabolusExMachina never-seen-before-or-since]]) allergies into overdrive. Oh, and Globex' BenevolentBoss Hank Scorpio was actually a DiabolicalMastermind and enemy of [[Franchise/JamesBond Mr. Bont]] - who Homer helps capture and execute, resulting in Scorpio '''taking over the East Coast.'''
* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', [[WrongSideOfTheTracks Griffinstone]] is implied to be suffering from this problem by the time of ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E8TheLostTreasureOfGriffonstone "The Lost Treasure Of Griffinstone"]], if Gilda's peddling of [[LethalChef griffinscones]] for the sole reason of wanting to earn enough bits to get out of there is any indication - compare that with the last seen status of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E24MysteryOnTheFriendshipExpress Gustave Le Grande]], who is shown to be a SupremeChef and was far outside Griffinstone in his appearance, and the flashbacks in the stories told by Twilight and Grandpa Gruff of [[VestigialEmpire the glory that Griffinstone once was]].

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* The Reconquista was followed by the Spanish Inquisition, in which hundreds of thousands of Jews and Muslims found themselves dispossessed and sometimes killed by the Spanish government. Many of them fled to the more tolerant Ottoman Empire.

** When it was under American jurisdiction, this was noted to be a problem for the army. The United States attempted to rebuild the army to be modern (meaning, along American lines), and that included the formation of a [[UsefulNotes/TheModernDayRambo "special forces"]] unit, the National Army Commando Corps, based on the US Army Rangers. The problem was, they accomplished this by promoting competent and loyal troops from the existing army, meaning that the divisions they used to occupy had lost their best members, and competent troops in the Afghan National Army were in short supply. Essentially, they got one halfway-decent armed force at the price of the rest of the army being near-useless, and while the Commando Corps performed better than any other against the Taliban, they couldn't win the war on their own when every other division was folding like paper.

* The most famous example of this phenomenon is the UsefulNotes/BerlinWall, which was in large part erected to prevent skilled people from leaving East Germany. Between 1952-1961, nearly ''3.5 million'' Germans left East Germany for West Germany (about 20% of the East German population). They did this by simply walking across - Berlin at the time was legally governed under the Four Power Agreement (France, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, United States) rather than either German government. After the wall, the numbers fell dramatically. It must be noted that the vast majority of emigres from East Germany to West Germany left by official government channels and the escapees constituted only a small part, albeit the most visible one.
** After the Berlin Wall came down, East Germany saw a huge exodus of skilled Germans moving from the Eastern states to the rest of Germany. As a result, Eastern Germany was still considerably far behind the rest of the country decades later.
** Germany was subject to this in ''spades'' before and after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, thanks to the fact that a good number of technical, scientific, and financial experts were Jews. UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein, [[UsefulNotes/QuantumPhysics Enrico Fermi]], [[ILoveNuclearPower Niels Bohr]], and [[UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace Wernher von Braun]], just to name a few, all emigrated to the Western powers before or after the war. While those who fled before the war did so on their own initiative to escape the Nazis, researchers and other talented individuals who were taken out by the Allies after the war (with or without their consent) were removed because the Allies had no interest (at least initially) in rebuilding Germany's devastated industrial base.
** Artistically, many film-makers of the Weimar Era Creator/FritzLang, Creator/OttoPreminger, Creator/BillyWilder and many others left for Hollywood upon the rise of the Nazism, as did Creator/MarleneDietrich.

** After the Berlin Wall came down, East Germany saw a huge exodus of skilled Germans moving from the Eastern states to the rest of Germany. As a result, Eastern Germany is still considerably far behind the rest of the country twenty years later.

Groups such as countries, corporations and [[AncientConspiracy Ancient Conspiracies]] need a lot of talented people in order to function. One way to get that is to recruit from each other. This can easily result in one of them just keep sliding backwards, losing their competent and talented people to others and thus becoming less and less competent and talented as a group.

This phenomenon is quite widespread in RealLife, as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_drain the other Wiki can testify]].

In individual cases, ThePeterPrinciple can also be used to subvert Brain Drain - as it turns out that the new guy wasn't so talented after all.

* This happened to the CIA in the backstory of ''Literature/WorldWarZ''. They were scapegoated for the recent Brushfire War the USA fought in, and any information they could defend themselves with was classified. Many fled this hostile treatment, and got a better paycheck to boot. Thus, the CIA was left with mostly incompetents, a bunch of sycophants, and a scant handful of patriots. The major outcome to this was the CIA's inability to see the early warning signs of the ZombieApocalypse.

* During a given country's "golden age", it has often been common for adventurous immigrants to swarm over there to find opportunities. For instance, several conquerors have had scholars and artists crowding their courts simply because the prestige attracts. This naturally causes a Brain Drain in other countries.

** Germany was subject to this in ''spades'' before and after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, thanks to the fact that a good number of technical, scientific, and financial experts were Jews. UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein, [[QuantumPhysics Enrico Fermi]], [[ILoveNuclearPower Niels Bohr]], and [[UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace Wernher von Braun]], just to name a few, all emigrated to the Western powers before or after the war. While those who fled before the war did so on their own initiative to escape the Nazis, researchers and other talented individuals who were taken out by the Allies after the war (with or without their consent) were removed because the Allies had no interest (at least initially) in rebuilding Germany's devastated industrial base.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' the Globex Corporation tried to hire away Smithers but he wouldn't go for it so they tried the employee with the next highest seniority (and therefore obviously the next best guy) - ''Homer.''
** However, Homer was actually a hugely valuable employee at Globex, his wacky ideas were given a fair try and made the people he managed more productive.
*** Downsides: The CoolHouse Globex gave Homer did all of Marge's work for her, boring her to madness. Bart loved the house, but the quality school Globex built put him in remedial classes with kids every bit as bad as him.[[note]]he got their attention due to not knowing [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin cursive]], but it's implied that Springfield Elementary is actually a ''really'' bad school as Bart also didn't know '''multiplication tables or long division'''[[/note]] Lisa was ecstatic with the house, school and even the town itself... until she discovered that the local wildlife sent her([[DiabolusExMachina never-seen-before-or-since]]) allergies into overdrive. Oh, and Globex' BenevolentBoss Hank Scorpio was actually a EvilGenius enemy of [[Franchise/JamesBond Mr. Bont]] - who Homer helps capture and execute, resulting in Scorpio '''taking over the East Coast.'''

** Though [[http://dilbert.com/strip/1995-09-10 one strip]] depicts them doing it to someone else ''just'' to saddle them with an [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption intentional black-spot project]].