Good article, again. Here’s something to ponder. Today’s NY Times (yeah, I’m a NY liberal), reports that science education is failing, especially in our cities, and last week noted essentially the same for math. It seems to me that education is a response to the job market, and if manufacturing (including science, engineering, and especially math components) has no predictable future, then there is no reason for Johnny to know algebra, or what a compound is, or how a transistor works, or hardly anything else we used to think of as preparation for a certain economy.
The globalization of manufacturing not only means that the factory goes where labor is cheap and there are no inconvenient laws concerning health or safety; globalization means that the schools are there and the R&D is there, as well. Only the market for the goods can be anywhere. As BusinessWeek suggests, this evolution has been extremely rapid and the US does not “control” it. In fact, since we’re no longer the big gorilla consumer, we don’t even control manufacturing from that end. Our auto companies are just now discovering this as they realize that there is virtually no way to make any money selling either inside or outside the US.
Can a first-world superpower survive without leadership in manufacturing? No. Can a first-world superpower survive without the money to hog global energy supplies? No. Can a first-world superpower survive without education in science and technology? No, again.
My humble conclusion is that we either abandon dumb politics and get some national-level planning in place, and quickly, or get used to no longer being a first-world superpower. Agriculture anyone?
Richard Stein, Ph.D.
President
Cooke Vacuum Products
