Indeed, the greatest threat to the U.S. economy may not be those costly, financially rickety entitlement programs most politicians are afraid of touching. Rather it may be a different kind of entitlement altogether, the sense of entitlement many Americans have to a position of global economic leadership that is vouchsafed to no nation and indeed, is regularly passed on from one era's great nation(s) to a new set of leaders in the next.
That is the conclusion to an excellent article that focuses on how we falsely think America is so innovative. Yes, we have vast potential for innovation and discovery. We foster creativity (for the most part) in schools and universities. And we have that great history of American ingenuity.
But the author makes a fantastic point - how many of the world's greatest inventions or innovations were actually created, designed, and perfected in the U.S. alone? Very few! I think this speaks to our great 'melting pot' history.
What would have happened, for example, had we turned Einstein away when he fled his homeland?
Maybe we should strive for more cooperation and collaboration rather than an us vs. them attitude.
But given how either side of the political forum can hardly compromise on anything (health care, energy innovation, and immigration to just name a few issues), how can we expect the rest of the country to do so?
It doesn't seem to me to do much good to blame upcoming generations (right, Mark Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation) either. It seems to me that the best way to become this innovation nation is, as the author of the article suggests, to simply rise up and meet the upcoming challenges, which means handling a return to rigor in our schools while adopting technological tools to help students achieve.
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