(This is one of a weekly series of posts entitled “A Centrist’s Platform”. The complete collection of Centrist’s Platform posts is available on a single page, or via a special RSS feed.)
One of the secrets to America’s success has, I think, been its citizens’ and immigrants’ creativity. We’ve capitalized on those talents, invited individuals of exceptional skill to immigrate here, and we’ve invested in education in an effort to bolster the skills and aid the innovations of future generations.
However, recently I, like many folks I think, have become very concerned that as a country, we might be losing our edge.
Granted, in some respects, that is not necessarily bad news, since it is a reflection of the development in other parts of the world. Increased technological skills, coupled with semi-free trade arguably create new markets for us, which is probably a good thing.
However, I suspect that to a certain extent, our technological prowess is being dragged down by inefficiencies in our society, xenophobia, and plain ol’ resistance to change.
For example, consider the lowly light bulb. Incandescent light bulbs have been around for over a hundred years. And, even though more efficient CFL’s are now easily accessible and prices for LED bulbs are dropping, as a society we seem to be stuck on incandescent bulbs, perhaps because there’s too much money invested in existing incandescent infrastructure, and perhaps because Joe Average American can’t get his mind around these new-fangled twisted lightbulbs.
Consider also how foreign student enrollment in American universities has declined, presumably because of the post-9/11 bureaucratic hurdles that must be crossed to obtain a student visa, as well as the availability of competitive quality education elsewhere. That brain-drain bodes ill for the future, I think.
I’d like to see our politicians embrace the idea of investing in the nation’s technological future.
Such embracing should not come in the form of erecting barriers to trade or exchange of ideas. Don’t prohibit business from going “outside” or be overprotective of existing domestic industries. Instead, I’d like to see strategic, meaningful investment in new industries and education to support those new industries.
It’s admirable that our political leadership says it wants to fix the ills in today’s society, and ease the suffering of the nation’s disadvantaged. However, how about daring to display some vision, and foster investment in the future?