Forget the Rally Cry

Friedman’s article (2010, January 17) was an interesting view of what we as a society are choosing to spend our money and resources on.  I really like that he focuses on where we are spending our resources versus the countries that are doing better.  The focus of our country should be on nation building and not on wars outside our borders.  After that is said, I believe that he is offering a very simplistic view of what is happening to our economy. 

My first reaction to this article is to utter under my breath that this gentlemen should revisit a general economy class.  It is fair to say that manufacturing jobs are leaving our country for cheaper areas to manufacture, but not because they are better technologically but because it is cheaper to manufacture goods in these countries due to lower labor costs and less OSHA and environmental restrictions.  If we are shipping in more products than we produce in dollars we are sending more money out of the country than is coming in.  Technology has little to do with it since we have the capabilities to manufacture these products we just do not tend to purchase more expensive items at the store.  By choosing to not purchase the US made (more expensive in general) items we create a cycle that reduces the US economy even more and forces more corporations to outsource overseas to remain competitive.   In effect this creates a system where we are “competing” with countries that do not have to follow fair labor laws or who subsidize manufacture of products.

I also do not think that the focus on alternative energies that do not exist right now is a solution to the problem.  If I were to be political about this topic I would suggest that Cheney is not the only politician to make a major mistake in focus lately.  Our focus as a country should be on education, I believe that this is the best way to provide our students with a better, more fulfilling life.  This will provide the individual student with a chance to achieve a higher level of living.  I am not sure that the correlation between the economy and education is so clear cut though.  Given we are in a world economy, the result is to level the standard of living off with the rest of the world over time (based on cost of manufacture). 

I am also not sure that Sputnik is a good example of what we would like to do in education.  The results of the cold war were millions of dollars spent, nuclear proliferation, and ruining relationships with many countries.  We do know that when Russia became “free” they had (and still have) PhD level scientists trying to get jobs at McDonalds (literally as well as the Russian equivalent).  We did increase science and STEM education but we also geared the results of this to mostly military pursuits.  Following this logic, technology does develop during wartime so the rally cry Cheney is making about the “war on terror” would therefore make a lot of logical sense.  I believe that we need to want to develop STEM personally and as a collective not because of economic pursuits but for the love of learning, problem solving, and innovation.

References

Friedman, T. L. (2010, January 17). What’s our Sputnik? [Op-Ed]. The New York Times [Late Edition (East Coast)], p. WK.8.