Editor’s Note: Dr. Adam Segal is the Ira A. Lipman Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Advantage: How American Innovation Can Overcome the Asian Challenge.
By Dr. Adam Segal – Special to CNN
Sometime this year, the Chinese government will announce a new initiative to lure ten scientific superstars to research labs throughout China. The government hopes that if it offers a $23 million dollar award to Nobel Prize winners and other luminaries, they will relocate and raise the quality and prestige of Chinese research and development.
The program is part of a larger strategic push to shift from “made in China” to “innovated in China.”
The Chinese have great ambitions, but can they be met?
Spending on research and development as a percentage of China’s GDP has tripled over the past fifteen years from half a percent to 1.5%. By 2020, about 2.5% of China’s mammoth GDP will likely go to R&D.
A 2006 Chinese planning document introduces 17 megaprojects in areas such as high-end generic chips, manned aerospace and moon exploration, developmental biology, and nanotechnology.
In 2010, China passed the United States and Japan as the world’s largest filer of patent applications.
But as with other announcements, anecdotes, and data sets that appear to herald the inevitable rise of China, they mask significant weaknesses.
There are serious shortcomings within China’s innovation system.
The government retains strong central control of research agendas and the careers of researchers. There is cultural deference toward authority. The state’s intervention in the market, which is motivated by a desire to reduce dependence on foreign technology, perversely creates incentives for copying and reverse engineering rather than bold innovation.
Patent filings have been driven up by tax breaks and other policy incentives. Ultimately, many of these filings have very little to do with innovation and are instead designed to position Chinese companies to sue foreign firms as they enter local markets for alleged patent infringement.
Chinese policymakers are aware of these problems. They are addressing them. But progress will be slow because these problems are beyond just policy – they are at their heart social and political.
Take Google’s departure from the Chinese market. While it was the attacks on human rights dissidents and the theft of the search giant’s intellectual property that garnered the most attention outside of China, those hurt the most may have been Chinese scientists.
Of the 784 Chinese scientists who responded to a survey conducted by Nature, 84 percent said that Google’s departure would “somewhat or significantly” hamper their research. History suggests that it will be difficult to build a truly innovative economy while tightly controlling information.
In the West, the dominant policy recommendation in response to the rise of China has been to spend more on R&D and train more scientists and more engineers.
U.S spending on R&D was $395 billion in 2010. This is more than two and a half times larger than China’s expenditures of $141 billion. But given the size of the Chinese economy and current growth rates, that gap will close.
Additional funding, especially for basic research and development, is necessary, but the United States cannot compete over the long term on raw numbers alone.
Nevertheless, the United States should take heart. It has significant advantages, which it needs to exploit. It has great social and cultural strengths, including the ability to conduct cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research; recognize new markets and consumer demands; manage across time, distance, and culture; tolerate risk and support entrepreneurship; and welcome new ideas and talent no matter what their origin.
Openness is essential, and the United States must remain the place where the most talented and skilled still yearn to come.
This means we must make some changes:
First, visa regulations must be reformed and the path to citizenship for highly-skilled immigrants made much smoother.
Second, the United States needs to remain open to the flow of money since foreign investment is essential to its economic health and innovative capability. In particular, money must flow to early-stage start-ups.
Under the Obama Administration’s “Startup America” Initiative the government will launch a $1 billion early-stage innovation fund that will provide a 1:1 match to private capital raised by early stage funds. Cuts in payroll taxes help lower the cost of hiring new workers, but the government should also consider reducing or eliminating capital gains taxes for investments in start-ups.
The single-minded focus on increasing the absolute numbers of scientists is distracting from the other work that must occur.
Third, what it means to be a scientist must be expanded. The range of skills a scientist develops must be broadened, and there should be new pathways to careers in science. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation now helps universities develop a professional science master’s degree, which includes two years of graduate-level coursework in math and science, interdisciplinary research, and classes in business management as well as the fostering of communication, teamwork, and entrepreneurship skills.
Future competiveness will be assured not by trying to match China in raw numbers, but by strengthening the software of U.S. innovation – the social, political, and cultural institutions that move ideas from labs to marketplace and have made America the center of innovation for decades.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Adam Segal.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Well said. I have been talking about many of the things you mentioned to friends and coworkers: Gov. matching funds for start ups, easing citizenship path for foreign grad students in particular. Good to know there are like minded people out there!
How can you beat China, when there is no longer anything made in America?
We have to make something, before we can outperform another country.
I agree with you 100% on your article. But you have to look at our own goverment right now. Republican and Democrat in Washington can even get act together and how the country able going foreward. All they want just look underneath they own desk. Good for me and bad for you is OK. You are dying and I am not.
Is it possible to beat China without any US innovations today?? I think no, plus it really sounds like blind arrogance. Let's say, in alternative energy/green technology sphere, like producing wind turbines, solar batteries, electirc cars, etc. the gap btw USA and China is huge.... China with these scales of goverment support, manufacturing and reiinovations in this sphere will be a leading producer of future crucial energy resources.
The headline speaks volumes of blind arrogance
We will win
@USA winning
no you re not stop dreaming you re losing each and every day
no matter what you do you will never be the same anymore even if you were to start anew noone trust you nor believe in you anymore you re only gonna sink deeper and deeper
while you were bragging the Chinese were at work
you mean the chinese children are sweating there rears off
wow, someone sounds bitter.
A Gringo Delusion
hey Ottawamen's center, why don't you take your anti-white jealousy/inferiotiy complex elsewhere; you might get more sympathy for your anti-white ressentiment in La Raza. One thing is for sure, Mexican's will never be able to innovate anything, and arguably have one of the laziest, most corrupt cultures ever seen. if it wasn't for Gringo's, the entire world would be living in the technological equivalent of the dark ages. Have some appreciation, as I know that despite your bashing white society, you love leeching off it ecnomically.
Hey Adam Franklin FOOL
China was technologically advanced when Europe was in the dark ages.
why so defensive? are you a Nazi or KKK????
there ain't no white anyways...just lots of shades!
Again, defending any culture seen as white gets all the white people haters out here. And everybody knows China was advanced in the early part of the last millennium, but they were not as far advanced as Europeans there dum dum. People are so wishing they can find white culture in more negative lights, makes me wonder if why isn't CNN and their race baiting ways ever uncovering people like this OttawaMensCenter person. I guess to these people they are so angry they must take it out on white people. Yes the Chinese had metallurgy before Europeans had it, but that's about it, your reaching there.
OttawaMensCenter, ha, that says it all, you couldn't be more radical left winger if you came from San Fran. Probably some kind of mangina. Anyway no sense of history or technology that's for sure. Are you aware that the technology and engineering of the Romans was superior to Chinese technology and engineering in the 1200s, and that's about 1000 years later. Get your grip on history buddy, you obviously watch to much David Suzuki.
Duh...Winning!!! (Just like Charlie Sheen!)
Great analysis, but full of self consolation trying to hide the true. In my opinion, we should for a way to get into competition with those advancing instead of diverting americans from the reality. Whoa re you hurting, if not yourselves and the entire nation? We have lost the most important thing: FOCUS. Focus on our pursuite of happiness, freedom, and better living. What we should do is to come up with real proposals on how to reconquer our position of leadership, by accepting strong criticisms and allowing open-minded people to express themselves on what is not going right in the country. Few people are involved in policy making, and those few are the corrupted ones. Americans have difficult to trust them. Things must change.
Go china Go china Go
China you will defeat America it is even in their Bible you re known as the Red Dragon they will one day Bow to you
Good for you China
your people are smart and you came along way Americans are a bunch of self righteous hypocrites
You, my retarded 37 year old friend, clearly live in you mothers basement hating life, people experiencing liberty aka Americans and most of all hating yourself. Thus, you decide to sabotage and slander (in God awful grammar I might add) America and what we stand for which is of course "Being the best." Go on and try to bring us down as you sit there in your pajamas eating chef boyardee asking your mom for more toilet paper. Following this class at UMD, I am heading to Capitol hill to experience another great day interning for an amazing Senator who, like the rest of our amazing congress, are doing outstanding things to insure we remain the best in the world!!!
Keep in mind, if these predictions are true regarding China's economy passing America's b 2025 then we still have nothing to worry-why? Because they are COMMUNIST which entails their regime ,like EVERY COMMUNIST REGIME IN HISTORY, WILL FALL muahahahahaha put that in your chef boyardee and eat it you loser
King of Idiocy-don't get worked up over this guy.He's a Chinese plant trying to spread defeatist mis-information.That's why his grammer is so bad,for one thing.His type always shows up on China-centric threads.
Maybe his grammar sucks because he went to an American public school and graduated valedictorian of a state college ;P
armenians are pedos and rapist
denigrating an entire group of people is sick- but you are a scumbag AND A LOSER
I love the looks of these women and those Trains look great
Good for you China and by you coming on top Racism will be out once and for all America is a land of Bigots
You, my retarded 37 year old friend, clearly live in you mothers basement hating life, people experiencing liberty aka Americans and most of all hating yourself. Thus, you decide to sabotage and slander (in God awful grammar I might add) America and what we stand for which is of course "Being the best." Go on and try to bring us down as you sit there in your pajamas eating chef boyardee asking your mom for more toilet paper. Following this class at UMD, I am heading to Capitol hill to experience another great day interning for an amazing Senator who, like the rest of our amazing congress, are doing outstanding things to insure we remain the best in the world............
Keep in mind, if these predictions are true regarding China's economy passing America's b 2025 then we still have nothing to worry-why? Because they are COMMUNIST which entails their regime ,like EVERY COMMUNIST REGIME IN HISTORY, WILL FALL muahahahahaha put that in your chef boyardee and eat it you loser
Yes, the U.S has great advantages that the Chinese are lacking.
But being Communist (in name only) is not one of them.
There ain't no thing as Communism there. and even the gov takes notice if enough people complain- no democracy, but
some accountability at least.
I been there and seen it.
They're lots more CAPITALIST than over here.
There isn't any health coverage for people- have to buy your own.
No free rides.
No 99 week unemployment insurance.
GO CHINA
this time it s your Turn
I am proud of you Chinese People
America is Finished
u jack ass... those chinese coming to america and australia hardly able to talk or understand..
any given point of time i will give a job to indian than chinese... because atleast indians come on merit and not with some affiliated uni tie up .. any tom dick and harry come from china who cant even talk properly.. land of idiots...
I find it very amusing that you would spout off about Chinese people not knowing English when your comment shows you can barely write a coherent sentence yourself.
Wherever this 'land of idiots' is, you clearly emigrated from there.
You can be first in line licking boots, sycophant.
The Chinese people were once Poor and made fun of but Now you re coming on Top
at thge College where i used to go the Chinese Students were so good at Fashion
Americans now are becoming Jealous of you don t listen to their comments and keep working hard you will be number one they re just jealous noone likes America anymore most of the Teenagers in America are drunks and are on Drugs
the only downside to China and most difficult is the language
China will never be number one...soon the chinese people will revolt against the goverment just like in the middle east.
The chinese people are tired of the suppresive communist regime. Chinas days are numbered...they will never catch up.
You, my retarded 37 year old friend, clearly live in you mothers basement hating life, people experiencing liberty aka Americans and most of all hating yourself. Thus, you decide to sabotage and slander (in God awful grammar I might add) America and what we stand for which is of course "Being the best." Go on and try to bring us down as you sit there in your pajamas eating chef boyardee asking your mom for more toilet paper. Following this class at UMD, I am heading to Capitol hill to experience another great day interning for an amazing Senator who, like the rest of our amazing congress, are doing outstanding things to insure we remain the best in the world.
Keep in mind, if these predictions are true regarding China's economy passing America's b 2025 then we still have nothing to worry-why? Because they are COMMUNIST which entails their regime ,like EVERY COMMUNIST REGIME IN HISTORY, WILL FALL muahahahahaha put that in your chef boyardee and eat it you loser
Good for you Chinese people
and what loser country are you from? obviously one that is not worth mentioning in daily news. America is and always will be number one
@slypooks
uhh poor baby did i touch a nerve
no you re country is dying out and you know it you re just jealous
Go CHINA go China GO
I am happy for the Chinese they re hard working and they deserve it for the idiot who said Chinese cannnot speak properly at least they can speak alittle bit of your language but can you speak Chinese nope you re too Lazy to learn another language
China makes nothing but cheap trinkets. Thats it!
Again with the cold war style winning attitude. Yeah the US is also winning the most nukes race which are greater than 20000, when less than 1000 are needed to destroy the planet. The chinese on their papers and websites write the same stuff, how theyre "winning" a supposed race. The problem with the US is the endless debate that occurs whenever a major project is about to get launched such as the high speed rail. Surprisingly the Iraq war bill was passed rather quickly. The US has its priorities mixed up as simple as that. Now the two parties just score points of each other. The US govt is nothing more than a reality show.
This is BS Propaganda.....Let the people be.......Thanks for making America look stupid again....where can I get psychic abilities like you?
I agree with your article.
By the way send that king back to school.
Not with the over $14 trillion that we own the Chinese, Arabs and others. For all practical purposes China is over banker, and close to 80% of every thing manufactured by the greed creed US corporations is made in China. The masses in this nation cannot live on and or eat innovation. Try feeding that hog wash to these conservative republican forked tongued malignant narcissists, chronic scapegoating, hypocrite Sunday Christians, with all their perversity of inequality and rights only of their bigoted kind. The Chinese, Japanese and even Indians are bigger innovators then we are. Walk up.
I thought I read "Why American innovation WON'T beat out China's".. then I realized I misread.. then I laughed.. You cannot beat China...Obviously you've never been to China and don't know how they think.
First mistake, by letting communist hot headed china in WTO.. there are so many gaps:
1. Their chinese company enjoy all the freedom in west democractic society and get legal protection under value based and mature legal system unlike google, ebay gets beatean in china when the commies are encouraging local comapnies to create a world brand.. There is no proetction of west companies in China, infact the Rio Tinto Executive was sent behind bars with pretext of stealing state secrets and then concluding bribeing autorities, we all know how corrupt is China. Even Microsoft failed for 2 yrs in china till Bill gates had close door meting with Hujin toa and so much money spend on commies not as bribe but as gift.. we all know the truth about it.. they get protection for themself in their home land and in western democractic country while west comapnies gets beating at home and in china... stupid WTO dealing with dictators.
2.. second issue is, transperceny in matter dealing with company audits and protecting share holder.. We all know how china hide figures and infalate figures.. very good example will come from Mao Zedong where he showed crop production upto 160% more year on year and once 1600% up while there was famine everywhere and more than 60 million people died under his rule while still he enjoys success in china and world treats his as hero... China manupilates and hides figure – no one for sure knows how much in matter of import-export and defict and duty
3... its known fact that companies like ZTE and Huwai has govt background, in internalational terms is calles subsidies while china flatly denies it.. they give subsidies to small comapnies and big that compete with international comapnies... while west try to be clean china encourages local companies by under cutting prices and giving subsidies to keep foreign companies off...
World is stupid to deal with pig headed chinese.... to be honest.. now its like without chinese we can live.. while chinese killed vietnam and thailand manufacting by dumping goods and footwear in name of WTO.. and the quality as good as bad for chinese made productions.. why cant companies leave instead of whining about IP rights and stealing state secrets, stealing our R&D work and competing with us... we started the wrong ball in motion, which has no friction and it has caught intertia.. we will be dragged with that ball to hell..
Well american need to change it view and foster innovation. That start by making fat cats in corporate stop thinking about themselves and start giving their employee resources to innovate not ship job out the country.
US is so sick where fat financial corporate cats make billions while innovators live in the middle class.
For those bragging about China and anti-american just get your brain in right.. learn something about economics.
- First the biggest problem in China is about intellectual property rights... basically companies invest billions of dollars in R&D & R&E which china imitates easily.
- China has more than 18,000 strong army of hackers, all they do is to hack govt and companies website, steal intelligence and also technology, its impossible for a country just 33 yrs old to develop sophisticated wepons and compete with technology world over... The world is blind if its not seeing this, chinese hackers are hacking companies billion dollars of reserch work and competing against other companies as lower price, nothing to do with manufacturing. The question is how does china build sophisticated weapons, while it was still importing weapons from Russia to around 1970s; a country cannot develop so much sophisticated technology in 30 yrs besides china is too poor to invest billions in research work..same goes with its petroleum refining technology and research on other fields frm pharma, automobiles etc...think those pro-Chinese and anti-west people.
- Undervaluing yuan is easy way to kill foreign industries, thats what British did in Asia, killed all the cotton and textile industries by flooding the market with cheap and killing local industry.
- China is a not a real player in the world stage, as its shown in many instances on how maturally it behaves in world stage; be it a arms sales to Zimbabwe, Coppenhage (but mr, wen jia bao sitting in the hotel room and sending his deputy instead of going to show that he was not happy with Americans), or be it world trade or WTO; for chinese its always "My way or high-way";
- Anything or any issue becomes state issue, or issue with its integrity of state or country, be it a tibet, dealing with japan, S Korea or Taiwan; u connot have bilateral talks with a country by putting 1500 missiles to strike anytime;
- Every rouge country has some eliment of Chinese involvement, being it Zimbabwe, nuke intelligence to Pakistan, be it oil greed and helping Iran to playing a joker card of N korea against the world.. Chinese have dont worst then doing a little bit good for the world..
- Those Chinese living in west are pro-Chinese most of the time, they are still biased with Chinese communist government policies, always sympathetic; i have meet so many, even felon-gong and Tainaman square massacre was correct for them; i have meet so many Chinese who moved and settled in west but still have pro-Chinese view and always loyal to Chinese communist govt. right or wrong.. totally biased for their home country for wrong policy.
its hight time the world realize that we can accept the US than China, whose only intentions is to milk money, bankrupt the world, be super power at expense of other countries, territorial claims and hegemony..
wake up west, EU, Australia and many asian countries..
Peter, people from China who have settled in the West aren't so much loyal to the Chinese communist government, rather, they are appreciating the positive changes that are occuring in their former homeland. Keep in mind, your view is very Euro or Western centric. And the average Chinese can see that. I can see it. China has its problems, for sure. People from China won't deny it. But they also see positive changes. And any negative views in the West about the positive changes in China are seen by the Chinese as an attitude of containment. Your view of China as some oversized rogue nation isn't true. And since the Chinese immigrants are from China and understand that country better than you do, they simply don't share your Euro centric view of the world. Last time I checked, having a Euro centric view of the world was not a requirement to settle in the West. And it isn't required to be proAmerican. Look at the appointment of Gary Locke as Ambassador to China (I realize he is not an immigrant, but I want you to note his attitude). But he has a Chinese family background and is very proAmerica. Yet wants to build bridges and understanding with China. Strengthen trade ties, etc. So it is not that Chinese immigrants have a proChinese government attitude, rather, it is your Euro Centric view of the world that taints your perception of them.
@ Peter
BOOOOOoooooooo
It is difficult to compare China with the US. They are at different stages of economic development. Much of China's efforts will be to catch up with the West while trying to innovate in parallel. For example, China will be conducting research on new technologies for nuclear reactors while trying to acquire existing technologies from companies such as Westinghouse. China's resources will be limited. The world won't likely feel the full weight of China's potential for another 20 years.
Absolutely right. As Chinese I know how weak China is. China have been a weak country for about 200 years, while US rising up dramatically. Chinese ourselves often says: We inherite nothing but language and food from our ancesters in a modern world. And China's little success was all a result of learning from the west, especially USA.
There's still a long long way to go.
Congratulaion and proud of yourself, at least you have a open mind , you can see the weak side of your own and learn the good , This is the factor of western civilzation , they learn from every aspect event the from the third or fourth world Not like the whole punch of people just wack they mouth and say proud of Chineese civlization. they don't even have the standard behaviour in public, their shelter look like abandone getto area.
Creating an innovative environment is quite rare.
What you need is essentially 3 things:
1. Freedom to think and do what you think is best.
2. Great communications technologies.
3. A multicultural / disciplinary environment in order to innovate.
China has none of these, and the West has all of them. So I guess China will be lagging when it comes to any innovation, but at least they are good at copying quickly, which is good enough – just look at Japan!
that is garbage: you don't need a 'multicultural' environment to innovate. The Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, times associated with the most dynamic innovation ever seen, were fostered in a monocultural atmosphere. Your simply taking liberal dogma and univerisalizing it. You need liberty; in fact, many of the multiple cultures that now compose multicultural dogma, such as Muslims, Indians, and many African countries, are actually antagonistic to innovation and liberty.
Wrong Adam.Al-Andaluse(Spain under the Moors)was the most scientifically innovative time in history.There you had some of the best minds from Europe and the Middle East working together for perhaps the only time in history.Their discoveries take pages to list and describe.
This won't ever happen, Chinese are born and raised to copy, not invention. The chinese until now still have not realize what is the differnt from copy to invention, Some time they are more proud themself when they can copy from some one than invensome thing which they are not interested to do.
Many times, when China appears to copy, they are in effect not re-inventing the wheel. And that really is smart. And lets look at small a individual Western country like Swedon as an example. She has two auto companies, Saab and Volvo. Where does Volvo get her technology for mordern day 21st century automotive design and production. Certainly she didn't invent it all. Not in the the backdrop of a Western world that is nearly 100 time larger than herself. Sweden, no matter how innovative could not possibly have developed everything that goes into a modern day Volvo. China is doing something similar, except rather than coming from a handicapp of being a small country, China is catching up from nearly a century of being out the market place or being embroiled political turmoil. So, yes, for the time being, China will acquire technology overseas and this will be seen as copying. But I contend it is no different than what all the Western and Japanese countries have done, and that is they acquired technology from one another. China is simply horning her way onto the dinner table and asking others to pass the main course. And when she has gleened all she can, all her resources can then be directed at cutting edge innovation. I have no doubt, that once China has caught up with the West and Japan, she will be the world's leading innovator.
It’s the dynamic world out there. Today’s successful innovation stories cannot secure tomorrow’s challenge, and that goes for both USA and China. But, one thing for sure, if the nonacademic extra-curriculum activities still the number one in our school systems, then we don’t stand a chance to challenge anyone in the field of innovation, I mean, including China. Johnny Can’t Read will lead us nowhere.
while china is peacefully developing, America is killing iraqis and afghans.
how do they sleep at night, knowing they will never able to clean the blood of their hands.
Ok I see what everyone's saying and I DO understand it. There are some good points made by Peter but I have had a lot of exposure to China, its culture, I've been there, I have a Chinese friend who grew up there, moved here when she was 15, basically taught herself English, mastered it and has a better vocabulary then most of my white friends who's families have been here for over a 100 years, she is the smartest person I know and she loves America and has a very solid grasp on democracy and communism. She can go at politics with the best of them and she has probably the cleanest options (aren't inundated with propaganda and bs left/right tendencies) I've ever heard. When she discusses politics its very refreshing to hear what she has to say.
Also another point just to be aware of is, if you asked the Chinese government why they steal trade secrets etc. they would tell you there are no rules. Technically there are but everyone breaks them including the USA. We preach one thing but love to do exactly what we just condemned. Not to go Charlie Sheen on you but they want to be "Winning" not losing which is what we're doing. We are self-destructing as a country. They are united and it works for them. We want human rights for them, and most of them are fine with what they have in their government, I’ve been there talked to them about it here and there and it’s a small percentage that think it’s a big deal. ALSO they TRUST THEIR GOVERNMENT?? TOTAL MIND @#$%@#$% huh? I wish we could do that.
China is the only country that has always been a Major Powerhouse in the world since the beginning so there must be a reason why. England could probably be put there too but they did have a point where they had to apologize to the Pope for disrespecting him and during that time no one would trade with them and they started falling apart.
Anyway, point is China isn't perfect and neither are we, but they are like my uncle and aunt. A little weird, they're relationship wouldn't work for most people but they have agreed that they're happy with the way it is. China is winning and we're losing, if they called in the debt we owe them we'd be done for. The only reason we're still a powerhouse is because the world operates on the dollar which looks like will change in the near future. Next time this happens or we're still stuck when it does, we're screwed because we're the ball connected by chain to the rest of the world and when that is cut we're screwed because we’ll fall and they won’t have that weight pulling them down anymore.
Let the Americans say what they want. The Chinese should just continue to improve themselves and marching towards their goals and objectives. Afterall, the Americans are not the ones who are going to live the Chinese' lives or give them any food or money, it is the Chinese themselves.
It is true that China may not be able to innovate as well as the U.S., and if you compare by numbers the U.S. will be dwarfed by China, but one thing is common to both and that is education. At the present time China with all its new money is developing an educational system practically from scratch. The U.S. educational system is circling the drain, both socially and intellectually. The U.S. needs to develop a educational system that is geared to the reality of the 21st Century and not one antiquated in old ideas. It worked fine up to now, but not any longer. As it is, the cost of higher education is way beyond the ability of the average family to afford. We may not be able to compete with China one on one, but we can compete and most probably outpace China on brain power. This is what its all about. Which country will outsmart the other. So what's the answer? Free higher education. Not one based on schlorships and or subsidies but by results of its students. In today's world the least of what is expected is that one graduate from high school, but as every student knows early on,unless your smart enough to be even accepted for some form of higher education and your family has the abilty to pay for it, what's the use of even trying. This is the fault line of the education system in the U.S. You can have the best teachers in the world with wall to wall carpeting in the halls and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, but if a student knows that he is either not smart enough to further his or her education or that their family does not have the money, what is the sense of even trying. At least 50% of American students think this way, especially in the lower economic strata. But free education in and of itself is not the answer. I am not wanting to throw money at the problem. What I suggest is that should a student through to high school graduation have a grade average of let's say 85, then 85% of whatever higher educatin they so choose should be paid in full with no obligation on their part. The same goes if their average is 75 or 76 or 89 or even 70. The difference in the cost can then be made up by either the student with a part time job or by their family. But where is the money for this all to come from. The government is already in to much debt to even consider this an option. The only group left to be able to support such an idea is corporate America. What? Corporate America.? Outside of China their the only one with any money. They got trillions. They even refer to its employees as a "human resourse", just as they refer to their supply needs as a resourse.
They are the ones who benefit most from the education of its employees, so therefore let them pay for that resourse. Under this proposal, the U.S. gov't will pay the initial cost of a student which will put them under contract for said amount of money. The student upon graduation will acquire a job be it from AT&T or IBM or whomever. When hired the company will then pay back to the U.S. the contract amount. In this way the country benefits and corporate America pays for its success. Just an idea.
This is complete nonsense ! The Chinese don't care about things like patents – they just STEAL other countries technology and put their children to work in the sweatshops.
The US, UK, EU and Japan may well continue to out think the Chinese but until the citizens of these countries stop buying the products manufactured in China by slave labor, regardless of which Western company's name is on it, China will not only increase its market share but they will also be able to perpetuate their criminal actions against people domestic and foreign, wildlife and the environment. There is nothing Made in China that anyone needs, especially since most of it is inferior quality, dangerous and often proven lethal to children. Everyone who cares about the world and its inhabitants will join in the Boycott China movement. Enough Already!
Some major points are missed in these discussions and in the article itself:
1. China – are we referring to the term as the current government, or the people here? No government stays in power forever, but people will;
2. Time frame – Are we talking about the last 20 years, the next 20 years or 200 years down the road? China went into reform just for less than 30 years. America has been there, uninterrupted, for what, 200 years and it stood on the British shoulder to begin with;
3. The Chinese was once very innovative. They are not doing that well today does not mean it won't be so tomorrow;
4. To those who think forever America leadership, think again. You could well be if you start acting as one. Today you are not. You are not winning the world over by winning people's hearts, but largely by the dollar, and gunpowder, and 200 years of history is a fraction of a second in human history;
5. To those who think the Chinese "works hard", think again. People work hard very often is a result of being forced into position of doing so. I bet there are many people in America work twice as hard. Then again, working hard does not mean innovation;
6. And to all, Chinese, American, we are all one people on the same crowded planet rock in an vast empty space.
Wrong question, wrong answer. Does it have to be a zero sum game? With more innovations we are all better off, not worse off.
that's the best comment i've read so far
A few words of caution: for decades the U.S. benefited from a 'brain drain' bringing the brightest from the developing world (mostly China and India) to America. Most of these people got Ph.D.s and stayed in the U.S.. These days are coming to an end. Now, many Indians and Chinese either return to their native countries or simply choose not to bother coming judging that they may have better opportunities in either China or India. I am not talking in the abstract. It is something that I have been able to observe.
I've lived in China for 5 years. While there, I've met people who's job is to go overseas and bring back products to reverse engineer. (They are very proud to be good at copying?). Some observations:
- Their schooling is fundamentally based on memorizing and not understanding principles
- This lends to all most all thinking alike thus the obvious lack of creativity (China gov't censorship/propaganda doesn't help)
- Culture of saving face- when a mistake occurs, much rather let it go throught the process than admit the mistake- thus poor quality (almost all Chinese companies making items of value/technology have a foreigner in a supervisory role for quality). One foreign supervisor said if he leaves the assembly line for 3 or more days, the product starts deviating.
- Like USA but worse, Illegal business activities tend not to be punished. Bribing is normal and is great when your in trouble. Our small company that I had my Chinese girlfriend "own", did not pay company taxes for 1 year, the China govt wanted us to pay several thousand $US plus penalties. Our accountant bribed the govt auditor $100. All resolved...
- China had >20 years of foreign help to develop manufacturing and quality. The manufacturing is solid but they still have not mastered quality (example Chinese cars can not make the US and Europe markets- safety is horrible, and can not meet 3 year warranties to be competative). I escorted a foreign buyer of cars (to be sold in N. Africa). The Large Chinese company made everything- motorcycles, cars, trucks and buses. No warranty but with each vehicle, they added spare parts based on 10% of the cost- that is a lot of FIXING... (and they threw in an ATV with each shipment). They showed the reverse engineered Toyota engine and put their stamp on it (of course will not last 1/3 the time).
- Like USA people, Chinese are not hungry and are now lazy (also a by-product of 1 child policy-spoiled)- working hard is not valued like before. In China, a lack of opportunities as too many educated folks in the job market (many millions) for too few jobs (we had 1 opening for an engineer, we had >600 resumes and some wanting to work for free for several months for probation).
When they fix most of these, look out USA.
that's the honest truth
I hope every country starts to innovate. It means better stuff and better solutions are available globally. Competition can be good. The space race is a perfect example. I just think the trash-talking and obnoxious conjecture about perceived winners and losers is socially toxic. As an American, I'd only be concerned if the U.S. stops or slows it's own innovation (per capita?) which I don't see any reason why that should happen but I'm thinking relative to any other nation. Inspiration flows all ways. I just politely request that innovation isn't focused on WMDs, oppressive social constructs, or horrible financial products that collapse the economy. I'll add in one more condition and that is, I hope that the environment is assisted, not further damaged by the next generation of innovation.
One thing this article is forgetting, even if something is invented in the United States, it will be produced in China including the initial production run. And the odds are, that company will be registered in another country for tax reasons. The only Americans that will benefit will be the CEO, board of directors and large shareholders. I don't think much will 'trickle down' to the middle class, when you remove the need for their labor.
Ofcourse US will beat China in innovation; China cannot invent anything themselves; they're civilization is a mummified mass. China hasn't invented anything in over 2000 years. You think the US might not have to worry about Chinese innovation? You can call this arrogance, but I like to call it facts.
So where was the printing press invented? Gunpowder? The compass? Paper? The cannon? Paper currency? Cast iron?
Don't talk about things you don't understand. Up until the Industrial Revolution the Chinese were the foremost scientific and technological powerhouse in the world.
Adam, you are day dreaming, get a life, brush up on your readings, you need to travel more. The world is changing very fast, America is falling behind and you are still trap in a time capsule.
...you have me dazed with your ignorance
The key to the future is education of U.S. students. Currently the Republican Leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives is gutting the Dept of Education budget and funding for all of stages of education from kindergarten through to the PHD level. In North Carolina and Charlotte where I live the Republicans at the State level and local government are doing the same. Even the Teachers that are crucial to training the next generation of Scientist and Engineers are being vilified by the Republicans.
The Chinese government wants to educate all children no matter where they are located in China and they are willing to spend the money to do so. China is expanding the opportunity for any child to get an education for free no matter how far they want to be educated based on ability. In the U.S. education is for sale and only people with ability to pay will get a decent education. The lower middle class and the poor that make a majority of the population has very little chance of getting a quality education. The middle class student will be left with crushing debt for decades or more.
The U.S. will continue to fall behind and eventually be left in the dust by China for this simple reason. That is what will doom this country.
Tony, there is no money left for education, priority is on upkeeping the close to 1,000 military bases around the world, fighting two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, keeping the defence contractors busy with their order books. This amounts to $700 billion dollars yearly, there is no money left for schools, teachers and the rest of education. No wonder America drops to twenty something position in the PISA scores.
Lots of goods were conceived and developed in the U.S. Afterward, in the name of cost containment and maximizing profits, they ended up being made in China. Watch ABC Nightly News in the segment on Made in America.
Chinese workers are indeed quite hardworking. Their progress is quite obvious.
1. china has culture-cancer. made in china to Innovated in china. loo to the truth?
stop-look-listen.
look at the wrting system.... what Idiot came up with such barbaric-ugly system of writing.
2. Cultural-deference to authority... After 2000-years, 80% are peasants on the farm.
3 Confucius: Dead for 2000-years.....
4. Free-vote. Free election Not a single free vote.
5. China did Not
a. sail around the world like Portual, Spain UK US... etc.
b. china did invent flight at Kitty Hawk 1903
c. china did NOT land on the moon 1969.
d. china is NOT center of the world.
e. china missed the science-age, Industrial age.
f. china did NOT discover the Earth, Solar System or the Milky Way galaxy.
china missed the last 500-1000 year of Innovation
Your ignorance amazes me. Most of your arguments are either invalid or irrelevant. However, it's true that China was not responsible for the industrial revolution nor most of the contributions to modern science. Nonetheless, that does not mean that they won't be able to catch up.
Here's something the Chinese need to innovate... –how about adding quality assurance into their production lines? You know, so the product doesn't morph into junk after it's sold.
The US "owning" innovation is a Bill Clinton and Wall Street globalization myth, sold to Americans to make them feel better when their jobs are shipped abroad. The only understanding of innovation Clinton and WallStreet possess, is how to innovate Bull-Sheet.
Again, men are interested in this argument of who's dic* is bigger. The point is that the China is making a remarkable progress based on manufacturing based economy. This was the right choice, in my opinion, considering its population. For the same token, India is moving to a wrong direction with its focus on IT software, again considering its population. The key to success of any country is, and should be, how well the system can feed their people. Just ask the former USSR leaders if you're in a doubt of that issue.
Is China doing the right thing? The results are good so far. Is China ready to take the US place any time soon? Who are we kidding? There are many millionaires and some even in the world's top 100 rich people list. However the reality is that the average Chinese is making about $3K/yr. A long way to go, but nevertheless Chinese is coming.
Btw, don't worry about US being a superpower forever. The history has a strong opinion of his own when it comes t that.
Silly me. How could have I indeed ever missed on that? It totally escaped me that part of the american dream is to dream yourself successful even when reality says otherwise. I should say though that one thing America is good at is "spin". One has to give them credit for that.
U.S. ahead of China in innovation? bull! China has ten times the 'brighter' segment of population than the U.S. can produce. The arrogance of someone saying that the U.S. is or will be ahead of China in the near future is incredible! The way prople make statistics bend to their notions furthers my disbielief. China seems to constantly improve. We on the other hand seem to mark time or go backwards.
The U.S. may have an edge on China when producing large machinery and high tech weapons and overpaid CEOs that fill office buildings while products are made outside of the U.S. , but for the everyday items such as household items, electronics, clothing, etc that Americans buy that make up the economy China rules.
My tshirt, socks, adidas, reebok, sketchers, laptop, dvd player, ps3, ipod, iphone, dish plates, Knicks jersey, car, work truck, television, towels, and the bottle cap to my water I am currently drinking says Made in China. 80% of the wheat gluten found in most of our foods is made in China. My catfood is made in china. Tennis rackets, most of Toys-R-Us, my coffee maker, toaster, dishwasher, etc etc. Walmart works almost exclusively with China.
America is Made in China.
Strange, this article is a self consolation, trying hard to console everyone in the US in times of great economic hardship, that ever though the situation is in a financial mess, everything is fine, we are still good at what we do, China has a long way to go. No, this is wishful thinking, the fact of the matter is, the US is in a sharp decline and it doesn't take a genius like me to understand that many of the brilliant scientists currently in America are actually foreign born and China is aggressively pursuing their own and enticing them to come home.
There are a few advantages China has over the US, money, China has lots of cash to burn, while America is highly in debt. Population another, China has 1.3 billion people, while America has only 300 million and depends alot on immigration to grow the population. Leadership, China has got very determined leaders that knows what it takes to succeed, while America is in fire fighting mode, leaders are constantly bickering over money matters, no time to think strategically for the future. History can teach us a lot, Chinese were once a great inventor, they gave the world paper, compass, silk, procelain, gunpowder and many more. This time round, they have the ambition, determination, drive and most importantly the money to succeed in the globalised economy, America needs to wake up and put your act together, you need to know your priorities and do what is necessary to compete, the past does not determine the future.
I was thinking, America is still good at a lot of things, here are some,
Gun ownership, highest in the world
Abuse of substance, cocaine, the demand in America is fuelling violence in Mexico, their supplier
Carbon footprint, American love SUVs, they probably burn more fuel per capital than anyone else in the world
Debt, highest in the history of the world
Prisoners, America put more people into prisons than anyone else on this planet
Teenage pregnancies, culture of sex and booze
BTW, these are dubious honors and nothing to be proud of, least some readers here gets excited and equate it with the context of this article.
It's articles like this that make me think America will lose. It's all talk focused on making us comfortable...and feeling comfortable is exactly what will hinder us from continuing to innovate. America needs to wake up and realize that the rest of the world will not hold us up on a pedestal the way we appear to enjoy to hold ourselves upon.
Phil, the call for Sputnik movement is falling on deaf ears, we need another big crisis in America then everyone will wake up and take notice, until such time, everyone will sit back in their cosy armchairs, carefree and contended with the status quo.
China has already beaten us. Ditto Germany; France; and Japan. Russia is rapidly catching up.
We can pretend that our "freedom" will save us; but we are not free. We are slaves to the military industrial complex–something (General Eisenhower warned us about fifty years ago); corporate executive greed; and oil. While America spends close to a trillion dollars a year in military and related expenses, China spends just 90B$ (Zakaria just gave us that figure on CNN). With 1 Billion people to our 300 million; on a per-capita basis, America would have to cut MIC spending to just 30B per year to match China's!
As long as we choose to build bombs rather bullet trains our standard of living (the lowest it's been since the great depression) will continue to fall and China's will continue to rise.
I am glad that we have Educated_Bum and many more people capable of intellectual and critical thinking, here reading this article. I smell a rat each time the media spills out such feel good articles when the reality is on the contrary. I am beginning to wonder too, if there is a cosy relationship between the administration and the press, just like Wall Street and the Treasury has a nice and cosy relationship.
the US can't even make or operate a decent high speed rail line
innovation is not the issue it's the corporate sell out bastards and thier crooked bought goverment officals that have screwed this country
they do have a few edges, but it will not effect the outcomes of future innovations,,,,US is a clear winner, that's for sure.
US 'welcomes new ideas and talent no matter what their origin'. Yes, it is true but many ideas are stolen by locals.....
If nations can't reverse the effects of pollution, this is as silly as arguing who's got the most toys on a sinking ship.
so true!!!!!!!
This is a serious problem we should consider to focus. We should instill to be number one in the world, like http://trickntips4u.blogspot.com/2011/03/why-is-dollar-used-internationally.html
I understand that the economy here is not what it use to be. However, those who praise China to the unnecessary level, need to spend some time in China. I'm not talking about those luxury foreign brand hotels in Beijing or Shanghai. In EVERY aspects, China is behind US at least 100 years. People still disappear for what they believe. Nobody pays for Windows used on their PC. Major corporations are owned by top government officials. Not cheating you when they have chance is considered being stupid. Pollution is everywhere, but nobody is doing anything about it. They can ignore international patents and the government will protect them. ...and so on...
Also 1.3B people represent many negative burdens for China- that's 1.3B mouthes to feed. As the current system in China is not favorable to distribution of wealth among people, it'll be interesting to see how much more the people of China will be motivated to do better.
Yes, China invented this and that. China was a superpower once already. I'm not sure if the history will give another chance. Italy will love that too.
Yes, someone will surpass US soon or later. Nobody stays on the top forever.
But one has to know the real threat, not the most popular one on the Internet.
Yes, you still have to see for yourself to make a realistic assessment.
I'm an immigrant just like your father and grandfather. You got a great thing going here despite of a few bumps. Trust me. You don't want the system like in China and I think the honest Chinese will support my claim here.
You want to criticize your government for what's happening lately in US? Fine, do so.
Because they can't do that in China.
SORRY, China is ahead in some areas- like wind energy.
And soon high speed rail.
I'm in China right now. Sure there are mighty big problems here, but some local govs actually get a lot done.
China is behind the U.S about 30-50yrs. esp. socially speaking. There's no ethical system in place now that Communism is gone. Making money is all that matter and that's a huge problem.
Actually honest Chinese don't want a crazy "democratic" system like in the US or Taiwan.
The problem is feeding the population – that's old ...
it's making sure everyone works and makes enough to "get ahead"...
Everyone in China laughs at the Commie party- it's so irrelevant.
And they criticize, to a limited degree.
U.S airlines SUCK! After flying Air China, Brit Air, Lufthansa, Air France, JAL, Sing Air, ElAl- All are superior to our crappy
United, Amer Air, Cont, Delta –
Point is that U.S is not that wonderful- we got lots to fix.
and it seems like China is doing more to get things right than we are.
Where are you in China? Have you been to smaller towns?
China is behind the U.S about 30-50yrs???
In 1970, "average" household in US had a car among other things that average Chinese will never see in 30-50 years.
China is ahead in wind energy and high speed rail???
They invite foreign companies, i.e. Germany and Japan, in unfair terms and try to steal the technologies.
Chinese laughs at Commie? Till they get locked up, you mean.
Tell that to Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Prize winner.
US airlines suck? You mean the service. I'm sure Air China planes are either Boeing or Airbus.
They have cheap labor and high competition, so one will think it's better when it comes to "all kind" of service industries.
I'm sure you know what I mean if you 've been there long enough.
China is doing more to get things right than we are???
Where did you live in US? It will take 50 years before Chinese government can do 50% of what's been done here, i.e. education, health care and social infrastructure.
China got where they are today because of the people, not the system. Now the system is in the way of people, but the system will roll tanks over their own people before they give up.
I don't know why you are in China, but just enjoy your trip and stay out of trouble. I heard the jail there is pretty miserable.
If you're in a business trip, the dinner you had with your partners last night wasn't $100. It was really $20 and your partners and the owner of the restaurant each took $40 each. Also, don't ever take anybody back to your hotel room if you're not married. That's also illegal in China and you could go to jail for it, by local and central government there.
"Actually honest Chinese don't want a crazy "democratic" system like in the US or Taiwan."
What do you call those free market system their economy is growing on? Travel to the place they want to go, create business as they wish and want to have child more than one allowed by government- what do you call this odd behavior?
I know everybody hates US, but everybody wants to do what people in US been doing for a long time. You can call it whatever you want.
"Point is that U.S is not that wonderful- we got lots to fix."
US by no means is perfect. I've been travelling a lot in my life. I'm not talking about your average vacation or business trip.
I give US 9 out of 10, only second to a very few northern European countries.
Patent filings have been driven up by tax breaks and other policy incentives. Ultimately, many of these filings have very little to do with innovation and are instead designed to position Chinese companies to sue foreign firms as they enter local markets for alleged patent infringement.
how does that differ from the USA?
You are dreaming my friend. This morning I was holding in my a hand mobile accessory in its casing. The labeling says: "Designed in USA", "Made in China". If US dreams are being implemented in China then how can you beat China?
"Innovation" means almost nothing. In the long run, the US "innovates", then the Chinese take our innovations and produce them at a fraction of the cost. Look...What was invented in the USA: Computers, Television, Telephones, Airplanes, production lines, plastics...tons of invention and innovation, and what do we have to show for it? "Made in China" and a failing economy. We need to stop buying foreign-made goods and sending them our technology.
I have had some unique experience in that I worked as a consultant to a Chinese mega-company on a large project in a third country. I actually generated a small stream of money flowing into the US from China, which is like a fish swimming upstream. Anyway, prior to my experience, my opinion was that the Chinese were going to out-compete us on many fronts and our days as an economic leader were numbered. I assumed this was a foregone conclusion. However, after working with the Chinese to move this project forward, I learned several things. 1) their engineers are intelligent and well trained; and, 2) they couldn't manage their way out of a paper bag. No one was able to make a decision because of fear of repercussions. They were absolutely paralyzed by this fear right down to the smallest decision, to the detriment of the project. When it comes to "innovation" I just don't see the Chinese making great strides.
As you've pointed out in the article, America should provide the right economic, social and political foundation for innovation and invention. This means free enterprise, education and health care and democracy. The US economy is already as free as it can ever be. So is its political process. Unfortunately, Republicans, true to its credo of "you die if you ain't got it and "if you're not one of us you can't stay in the US", is taking aim at the role of the state in ensuring that all Americans be in good health and has the proper education and that it is country that welcomes inventors and innovators from around the world. Albert Einstein for instance has been a Jewish immigrant. If Republicans would have their way, only the wealthy can have proper education and health care and that innovators and inventors from elsewhere in the world are no longer welcome in the US because they take away jobs from American. But we here in Asia are not the least perturbed. We have Europe, China and India to work with if the US self destructs as it is now in the process of doing so. As the saying goes "whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad". Good luck to you Americans if you continue to vote Republican as you've just did in the last mid-term election! You're no longer the only big player in the world.
Our immigration system is terrible. We allow people to bring in family members that offer little benefit to the country. We should discountinue the family-based policies and only accept people with skills and/or other resources that are in-demand.
If they can't bring family, they won't move here – therefore we lose.
I just came back from Southeast Asia and I stayed there for 1 1/2 years. The power of China is quite obvious. Economies there are running selling mostly Chinese made products. I could not find any American made products. They do have American brands for sale but made in China. They love the Iphone and Ipad but it is made in China. I am not sure if we can compete with the Chinese for we don't make anything anymore. Yes we are creative but then we send it to China and India to be made and develop and then they just copy it.
China has a much larger population, so all things being equal, it will return to the forefront of innovation unless there are inbuilt factors in Chinese society (e.g. racial or cultural) that will limit it from reaching this potential. The question is whether you believe that or not. That is what the main article and a lot of the comments are asserting – saying that America can 'conduct cutting-edge research' and 'manage across time, distance, and culture' (can you get any more vague) – and that by implication China cannot do the same – is just a 'polite' way of repeating the tired stereotype that the Chinese learn only by rote, have no creativity, etc etc.
I think this is rubbish. For the last 2,000 years (which is just a minor segment of human history anyway), China has been the most technologically advanced nation for about 1,700 of those years. That's not to say theyre smarter, but there are just more of them. Sure, jets and battleships are more impressive than gunpowder and paper money, but are they more of a conceptual leap at the time? The fact that Chinese people are inventing things all the time on behalf of Western companies (just look at recent Nobel prizes in Chemistry etc, biased towards the West as they tend to be) suggests that there is nothing inherently limiting about Chinese ethnicity or culture, no matter what insecure Westerners would like to believe.
Now the political system is more likely to stifle innovation than tired sterotypes about deference to authority (puh-lease, its not feudal times anymore FFS) but the political system is likely to evolve, as it already has done dramatically since the Mao days. Also Chinese culture breeds a strong sense of loyalty towards country and race – only strengthened by the prejudice and contempt faced by Chinese people in Western countries – so its likely that many Western-raised Chinese will return to the motherland as it grows more prosperous to share their knowledge and expertise. So I see no reason at all why American innovation is going to surpass Chinese innovation (or Indian for that matter) for the foreseeable future. It will happen even faster if policy-makers comfort themselves with tired racial and cultural stereotypes rather than trying to improve their own R&D processes.
China would have to increase the average worker's pay TEN-FOLD to give them the same standard of living as Americans. Sure, on a country-size economic scale they're #3 and the US is #2 in purchasing power. But, break that down per capita, and you notice your average purchasing power of a Chinese citizen ranks around 83 – 101 depending on who is counting. The U.S. by comparison, ranks from 5th to 8th on the same measurement – worlds apart.
Add to that the regional instability of China with each state making friends with neighboring countries combined with an authoritarian domestic policy and you have a recipe for tension and internal strife. Fears of China are overblown.
Cru, don't get too excited about statistics, as the saying goes Statistics lies, damn lies and more lies. America is highly in debt, from private citizens, to municipal, to state to federal government, to students with their ballooning student loans. We don't need to look outward towards China all the time, I am beginning to worry about this fear about China, the biggest fear I think is surely within America, this is where the fears is, America need to take hold of the debt situation before it gets out of hand, it doesn't take a genius like me to know, everyone else in the world knows, that is why precious metals are skyrocketing.
America is still very innovative here is why:
1. Post 9/11 we innovated new policies that made it hard to retain exceptionally intelligent foreign born researchers
2. The tea party counts as a form of recent American innovation (they invented "reverse cavemaneering")
3. In fact we are so innovative that we devised as a way of spending over $200 billion on an Afghan war to fight the 20 Al qeada that remain there.
4. We are so innovative that we are spending far less on R&D today than we did in the 50's
5. We are so innovative that our immigration policies are implemented in ways that are overly friendly to excessive amounts of low skilled illegal immigrants while conversely, are harsher to higher skilled legal-immigrant researchers (try maintaining your technological lead that way)
6. We are so innovative that our representatives declined to grant Francis Chu"s (dept of Energy czar) request for $15 Billion dollars for Clean/Renewable energy research, while at the same time they approved over $400 Billion to Freddie and Fannie and over $180 Billion to Citi, (innovative prioritizing).
7. We are so innovative that we spent the last 10 years focusing our efforts on Iraq/Afghanistan in a world that is increasingly being dominated by China, India, ASEAN and MERCOSUR,
My point here is complacency. America still has it, but everyone else is hungry for what we got, and the playing field is no longer even, at least for purist capitalist nations like ours. Unlike before, today we are dealing with state-capitalism, getting competition from nations with non free floating currencies, maintaining an expensive military empire that is too thinly spread and worst of all, the issue is compounded by having two political groups that are becoming more ideologically incompatible to move the nation forward. Am excited about whats happening in China and the rest of the emerging world, and am still a believer in American exceptionalism, but as of lately it scares me to see that our leaders are unwilling to cooperate in tackling serious issues that confront our great nation.
Innovation can't come without free thinking. China is great at cranking out good mathemeticians and scientists, but they produce no stellar ones. Why? Programs that look to stifle "extremism" are growing as China looks to combat its own social instability, combined with a thin-skinnned political elite that cannot bear to face criticism.
America has many problems too, as our innovation is also stifled by poor economic choices, and with a frankly toxic political environment a lot of the innovations created in America will not go on to benefit America, but to corporations that will only seek increase profit and not America's global competitiveness.
Now the question is, knowing that how do we deal with those problems?
I hear that americans will have sex with animals for fast food. What a sad and pathetic bunch of subhumans.
Thanks for a really interesting read, learn quite a few tips here, trying hard to improve my credit , i did a consumer proposal 7 years ago and just now i am starting to rebuild my credit slowly but surely and trying to avoid that credit card trap.
This article is ridiculous. How many U.S. scientists, engineers, innovators and entrepreneurs are foreign-born? How many are Asian? If you go to Silicon Valley, the phone books often look like Indian or Chinese phone books. How about the universities? Last time I checked, Harvard, Princeton, and the University of California system were heavily Jewish, Chinese, Indian and Korean.
In other words, American innovation is heavily dependent on foreigners, immigrants, and non-White Americans. Trust me, I'm a Chinese American and I see plenty of Chinese scientists and engineers in the US who want to do something in China. Not to mention, Chinese students are far more eager to study science and technology, while most American children still think studying hard is "uncool".
Whatever future there is, the US's will probably not be as good as today.
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