Monday May 3

Science Globalization

U.S. Is Losing Its Dominance in the Sciences (NY Times)

To me, it is great news to hear that countries other than my own are becoming more prolific in the sciences. Sadly, to many Americans, this is bad news.

For a country that views competition as such a wonderful thing that we enforce it with anti-trust laws, you would think we'd apply that same thinking to international competition. Unfortunately, we have too many politicians and "patriots" in America who think it is our destiny to dominate and control the rest of the world forever.

I believe that this trend is a direct effect of the the illusion that the US government has been selling Americans for the last 75 years or so. We are told that we are the greatest society ever made. We believe we have a right to a very high standard of living: a steady job, a house, a nice car, and cable TV. Politicans make their living passing laws that "guarantee" us this standard of living, and for that we love them.

As decades go by, our collective work ethic has declined while we sit on our asses and watch TV. They tell us we have to spend all our money to keep the economy booming, and that our retirement will be paid for by the miracles of the stock market and social security.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world doesn't have it so rosy. They actually have to work hard and save money to get ahead - the very thing our American ancestors did to build the society we have today. Is it any surprise that certain countries are starting to catch up to us? They're just copying the model we invented, while we invent a new model that ensures we'll never again have to break a sweat.

Sooner or later, we're going to have to sweat, but for a much different reason.