Stepping Up To The Plate

Ours is an inventive culture. We conquered a huge landmass formerly known as the New World. We did this by spreading our population throughout the land via covered wagons, building railroads across the prairies, over swamps, mountains and deep canyons; we engineered vast water works that brought water to arid areas, and ready water supplies to rapidly growing population centers. We built massive dams to create hydroelectric power.

As we progressed we developed a world class automotive industry. A superlative national highway system. We reached for and attained the moon. We expanded our exploration of space. We created massive research and development projects which fueled innovations in medicine, delivery of medical services, discovery of miracle drugs and we spread these gains throughout the globe. Our educational systems expanded from local to national and back again for a doubling of opportunity and access for all who cared to expand their horizons. We invented new technologies that stormed the world and created whole new industries which further revolutionized culture around the globe.

The benefits of this society were shared throughout the country and household incomes rose, homeownership rose, business formations soared and entrepreneurial interest expanded exponentially. The magic of the “American Model” appeared invincible. Unstoppable. We won world wars. We partnered with other nations to meet the needs and crises of the world. We were generous and gracious in our assistance programs.

We have much to be proud of as a nation. We have experienced good times, very good times indeed.

But where are we today?

Where do we start to answer that question? Besides being huge, it has many parts to consider. Among them are:

1. We are broke; $14 trillion in national debt and growing
2. We are over 9% unemployed; probably another 9% underemployed; maybe as much as another 5% or more who have given up or retired early; what a waste of talent!
3. Governments raise taxes and fees to keep afloat, making the situation worse for the less fortunate
4. Governments lay off their employees deepening the unemployment numbers
5. International markets captured American markets further reducing employment opportunities
6. Financial systems faltered; many banks failed; investment banking firms failed; international trade patterns failed and were reshaped and still sputter along
7. Educational systems continue to produce students under prepared for their life careers
8. Infrastructure crumbling in more ways than we can count (roads, bridges, dams, airports, railroads, water and sewer systems, etc.)
9. Over dependence on foreign oil as proven oil reserves continue to shrink
10. Scattered and ineffectual alternative fuel source programs
11. Political gridlock in the seats of power (states and national throne rooms!)
12. We lost national competitiveness in manufacturing of all types of industries
13. We lost automotive supremacy; our autos are not the world standard; German, Japanese and Korean products are
14. This long list can be extended much more, but let’s get back to more productive ground

What we are really good at is innovation and invention. We have proven again and again that we can perfect those two characteristics into world wide industries and standards of excellence. The real question is what are we doing about regaining this leadership and pre-eminence?

I don’t care that the world has become our labor pool to make our products. What I care about is we have lost sight of how we innovate and invent for the rest of the world but retain ownership and employment benefits along the way. The latter provides the markets and labor/talent pool for future innovations and expansions.

To build a dynamic economy that fills the needs of its nation of origin requires innovation and invention constantly renewing and expanding upon itself. It must do so faster than population growth in order to fuel job opportunities which support standards of living which grow to meet expectations. Unknowingly we did that many times over throughout our relatively short history. We have entered a stagnant period. Duh! But what bothers me the most is our lack of doing much about it! Are we waiting for someone else to do something? We didn’t before. Why now?

Are we feeling defeated? Why?

It’s easy to seek others to blame for this. But that doesn’t do us any good. Even if the blame is well researched and accurately laid at the feet of the people most responsible for the problem, the problem remains…unsolved. Blaming may make us feel good for awhile, but it uses up valuable resources for very little gain. [Blame sometimes provides good information on the how and why we ended up with the problem; that may help us avoid it in the future; but history doesn’t suggest this is a likely outcome!]

Bottom line: we have problems that need to be fixed and championed. Who wants to be on the team to do that? What talents do we need to address specific problem areas? Whose expertise is critically required to do the job right? What resources will we need to identify and use to fix the problem? How do we pay for these? Over what time can we allow these problems to exist while we find a solution to them?

May I suggest that our politicians are not capable of helping us out of this at the moment? They are part of the larger problem we need to attend to. But for now, who will step up to the plate so we may all regain our national pride sooner rather than later?

Maybe we should start with two key visions to fuel our rebirth? If so I suggest these:

• Create a new fuel standard that completely eliminates oil; use remaining oil stocks only for lubricants or chemical derivatives as needed; transportation, heating, cooling and electrical generation or its replacement to be derived from the new energy source
• Space exploration goal with these benefits: propulsion technology gains applied to common day life, chemical and material innovations, technology and medical discoveries

Both of these visions require replacement of education and infrastructure models. Accomplishing these will help reduce unemployment and stagnant household incomes while we are building a prosperous future.

Who among us is ready to start on this pathway?

October 18, 2011