The USA headquarters 133 of the biggest 500 companies in the world, followed by Japan 68, and China 61. There are many reasons these countries did well in the arena of economy, for the US it is about innovation. The US is not about refining the processes, administrating the huge population, or fine-tuning the supply chains. By the time Japan figured out how to make better cars, we have moved on to computers and software. By the time China copied social networking, we have invented drugs that cure diseases. Along the way, we also invented the derivatives and credit default swap. All those changed the world and brought billions to the US tax revenue.
If you have read my recent entry, Pay Back Time Will Come, you must have agreed that there is no way we can cut our expenses out of this quagmire.
Innovator’s DNA suggested that innovation is an innate quality: nature not nurture. In a way, that’s great news for America. There are really abundant number of innovators in this country. All we have to do is to harvest them.
So, in addition to austerity measures and tax hikes, let’s work on what really make this country great:
- Immigration:
Immigrants, those who left their home country and moved here, are the source of calculated risk taking. The founding fathers are all immigrants, so were those who came to the wild, wild west. Let’s open the doors and welcome them: fresh blood, diligent workers that do not take anything for granted, and a good source for innovators.
- University:
Long known to be the breeding ground for creativity and major area for deep researches. Professors are cheap to fund. Stipends are nothing compared to Wall Street bonuses. Grad students live in the dorm, bike to work, and eat cafeteria foods. Yet these people change the world. It is insane to cut education budget. Give them money.
- New NASA, many NASA:
Astronauts are the best specimen of human beings. Audacious projects pushed technologies into areas no one knew exist. Geniuses are recession proof, give them their workshops.
Stop killing future. This country threw away trillions of dollars and ran out of money for teachers. Science is not expensive and is where everything came from. Fund that and let scientists lead us out of this mess.