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National Academies on U.S. Science
theodp writes to tell us that the National Academies, the nation's 'leading science advisory group', is warning of the continued loss of America's competitive edge with regards to science in the global community. In a press release they call for the immediate increase of teachers and advanced research and development, citing that 'in 2001 U.S. industry spent more on tort litigation than on research and development.' The Committee includes, among others, Intel's Craig 'Don't Call Us Benedict Arnold CEOs' Barrett.
The Americans have "faith based" science. What could go wrong?
Exactly! I picture our wealth of good lawyers as a gigantic tick (or other parasite, if you prefer) that suckles off the rest of society. We've let it grow, thinking that it was merely sucking out the bad stuff and keeping everything else in order (we were wrong, but whatever).
Now the tick is HUGE.. way bigger than the rest of us (still working with my metaphor here, so the rest of us includes everyone from Engineers to Artists.. basically the whole of the real economy; everyone that actually generates capital). As a result, we're practically dead. Supporting this beast for so long has taken too much out of us and workers overseas are now at an advantage.
Sounds like a pretty dire situation, right? WRONG! Once we're nearly dead the lawyers will see these juicy targets overseas and worm their way over to them leaving us to recover from our near fatal leaching. Once the lawyers are distracted we can make laws with which to control them and then wield them on the other countries until the end days! I'm telling you, this apparently crippling development is all but ensuring that America will be an economic powerhouse for centuries to come!