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America Losing Its Edge In Innovation
jaywhybee writes "Forbes has an interesting article about America losing its edge in innovation because engineers and scientists in the US are not as respected as they are in other countries, and thus fewer youths aspire to become one. Quoting: 'I’ve visited more than 100 countries in the past several years, meeting people from all walks of life, from impoverished children in India to heads of state. Almost every adult I’ve talked with in these countries shares a belief that the path to success is paved with science and engineering. In fact, scientists and engineers are celebrities in most countries. They’re not seen as geeks or misfits, as they too often are in the US, but rather as society’s leaders and innovators. In China, eight of the top nine political posts are held by engineers. In the US, almost no engineers or scientists are engaged in high-level politics, and there is a virtual absence of engineers in our public policy debates.'"
When a country starts seriously teaching creationism in schools, how can anyone be surprised? It's likely no coincidence that the US comes out very high in surveys on religious belief and apparently fairly low with regards to respect for science.
I love messing with people's heads. They are so deliciously predictable most of the time. Gives you a kind of high...
www.tribalnetworks.org - helping tribal people around the world to own their own means of high-tech communications
We slashed taxes so that we could no longer afford our spending and had to borrow.
- the pathetic slash of taxes you are referring to is more than offset by all the inflation, which taxes not only your latest income, but also your entire net worth. Do not confuse the words that come out of the gov't with reality.
It's not just the taxes that must be slashed, it must be the SPENDING that must be slashed. 99.9% of gov't must be fired. Only then the healing can start.
, keeping your investment bank from acting as your trusted advisor and your adversary
- wouldn't have even been an issue if FDIC was never created, and gov't didn't prop up their financial monster monopolies.
We slashed trade barriers to send jobs to countries with 1/8th the wages.
- earth to AC, you didn't have a choice. The imbalance in overall economy of the world had started the massive outflow of capital, it was only a matter of time that all capital would have left.
Removing trade barriers is only part of the answer, the real answer is to allow the economy to restructure, but that requires removal of 99.9% of gov't.
We killed regulations protecting union organization
- the private sector companies, that weren't gov't monopolies and that had unions there went bankrupt anyway. The unions are only active in gov't monopolies and in gov't itself, because those were the only entities big enough to sustain that kind of financial abuse. At this point even those institutions are no longer big enough.
We made it legal for corporations to spend unlimited quantities of anonymous cash to buy elections.
- there is no problem with this. The real problem is that gov't has authority to mandate the economic outcomes for any entities.
I left a number of comments on the solution to this problem previously, they are right there.
You can't handle the truth.