How America fell behind and how it can come back: A video interview with Thomas Friedman, the co-author with Michael Mandelbaum of the book “That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back”
It is now widely recognized that the U.S. is falling behind emerging countries like China; in manufacturing, competitiveness and educational performance. The authors identify the major challenges that the U.S. faces today, namely increased global competition, the information technology revolution, burgeoning deficits and excessive energy consumption. Add to these the fact that the U.S. Government is currently so gridlocked that it can only generate sub-optimal solutions to problems.
According to the authors, the factors that made America great in the past can make it great again. These are as follows;
(i) Educate the people up to and beyond the current technology.
(ii) Build and maintain the world’s best infrastructure.
(iii) Attract the smartest and most energetic people into the country.
(iv) Put in place the best rules to encourage capital generation and prevent reckless behavior.
(v) Promote Government-funded research at the cutting edge.
We need to get our act together, and soon.
Christopher J. Jones
{ 0 comments }
