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US No Longer Technology King
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that according to a recent report from the World Economic Forum the US has lost the leading spot for technology innovation. The new reigning champ is now apparently Denmark with other Nordic neighbors Sweden, Finland and Norway all claiming top spots as well. "Countries were judged on technological advancements in general business, the infrastructure available and the extent to which government policy creates a framework necessary for economic development and increased competitiveness."
My wife has been mentioning this for years: it seems like the 'owners' have been cutting back on educational funding, industrial infrastructure, etc.
I am starting to agree with my wife, given evidence like: Bush family buying massive amounts of land in South America, Dick Cheney primarily investing his own money overseas, etc.
I believe that people with real power in the USA are "cutting loose" the middle class and lower class. I write about this in my blog a lot: the best thing to do is to invest heavily in yourself: education, personal learning, pay off debt, invest, and save.
Fairly easy to answer -
The Chinese or Indians (or both in concert) landing a man on the moon.
I fully suspect that is what it's going to take.
I would love it if the Chinese did that. I was a kid when man walked on the moon last. We had a TV in my classroom when Armstrong and went for their first walk.
I thought the moon was a place in the outback where people hadn't been before (I was only four).
That has nothing to do with it, nothing at all.
You are currently exporting extreme religions (yup, that's what a lot of uk people think of the Johovahs witnesses that come calling, nut jobs to be avoided at all costs), and working in other countries to prop up creationism. Also there's the funding going to the search for the Ark, and the money being sent to Israel to fund the end time preparation...
Also lots of colleges and universities in the US are having to spend time just convincing religious students to learn scientific subjects, including needing support groups and reassuring people that you can believe in god and study science.
The very fact that the US is having to deal with holding back the upswelling of anti science philosophy in the classroom is evidence.
And I actually admire the US, if only you could get over this period.
You didn't hear these kind of excuses when the telegraph was the big communications network - it went to every town. And you didn't hear it when rail travel became prevalent - those tracks went everywhere, and if a mountain needed blasting to make way, the mountain got blasted. You can claim the Chinese worked like slaves to lay track - which may be true, but there is no shortage of cheap foreign labor in the US today - and they could be laying fiber (in fact, a lot of them are - just not enough).
The problem, as usual, is the self-serving traitorous bastards running Washington (the White House *and* congress - especially congress). When WW I started up, the US needed planes. Did they let the Wright Brothers push them around because they had some patent? No. They were like "look, guys, we need planes for the war, and you can't make them fast enough, so were throwing out your patent."
What happens now when we need equipment for the war? The multinational corporation making hummers whines "but we've got a contract - we make hummers and that's what we're gonna make." So what happens? We buy hummers that get our soldiers killed instead of the anti-road-bomb armored equipment we really need. (check this out). What's that about? Some greedy frackin senators with their palms greased, that's what!
No more excuses. Build the infrastructure we need, make the equipment we need, and quick dicking around with the greedy corporations.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia