Tuesday, April 29, 2008

U.S. Competitiveness: 'It's The Economy, Stupid'

Thought leaders on the topics of U.S. competitiveness and the science, math, engineering, technology workforce seemed to be pretty firm believers in a "tough love" strategy for preserving America's front-runner status in the global economy on Tuesday. A chorus of speakers at a National Academies symposium said the United States must do better in funding, training and supporting students who pursue those fields.

National Academy of Engineering President Charles Vest said stakeholders must ask themselves: "How can we garner the national will to take the essential step of funding the America Competes Act?" "The time for action is now," he warned, saying America faces numerous challenges and "the enemy I fear most is complacency." "If we ignore the obvious task at hand while others beat us at our own game, our children and grandchildren will pay the price," he said.

Lockheed Martin Chairman Emeritus Norm Augustine said the "cruel outcome" of the widely cited 2006 report on U.S. competitiveness that he and others authored called "Rising Above The Gathering Storm," was that other countries have been faster to implement its recommendations than his own. The paper "motivated others while we did very little." Meanwhile, businesses have found a solution to challenge they face -- moving factories and labs abroad. "That’s not a solution that anyone in American industry likes," Augustine said.

Perhaps the harshest words came from Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel, who said: "We sit here and fund industries from the 19th century and we refuse to fund industries of the 21st century." "We're not looking forward," he said, calling the country with the highest per capita income in the world "fat, dumb and happy." Barrett said Americans believe they still have the advantage, but when you get enough stamps on your passport, "you get a different perspective."

When asked by moderator and veteran CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer how good or bad the U.S. education system is, Barrett didn’t hold back. He said the K-12 system "sucks… by any rational measure you use. It's bad and every metric says it's bad." American universities on the other hand are some of the best in the world. "We don’t have to worry about the high end, we have to worry about the foundation," Barrett concluded.

Sally Ride, a former astronaut and the first American woman in space, offered: "Maybe what we need is a slogan like, 'It's the economy, stupid."

Read CongressDaily's coverage of the conference in Tuesday's PM edition and in Wednesday's AM edition (not yet published).

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