Posted in Economics & Globalization, Politics & Public Policy, Technology & Science, tagged advancements, alternative, balance, Big Oil, blame, brown energy, bullet train, buzzword, capital, clean, collaborative, commodities, cooperative, crisis, debate, drilling, Economics & Globalization, efficient, environmentalists, food, food insecurity, fuel, future, geothermal, gouging, Green, highway, history, hovercraft, imagine, incentives, inflation, infrastructure, innovation, invention, Iran, jobs, market, myths, not in my backyard, oil, partisan, partnership, petro, petro hoarding, political, Popular Science, power, price hikes, prices, private, privatize, profit, progress, public, pump, railroad, renewable, renewable resources, resource, rhetoric, risk, scarcity, solution, space, speculation, subsidy, surge, sustainable, tax break, Technology & Science, transportation, truth, values, venture capital, vision, water, wind, world, WPA on March 18, 2012|
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Quick! What type of world did you imagine when you were a kid? Did you foresee yourself darting about in a hovercraft much like the cartoon family in the Jetsons? Vacationing on the moon? A lean, mean greener world? How is it that we find ourselves these many years, decades even, down the road and we’re still looking at a society that in so many ways is what it once was: the world that petroleum built? Decades after the Carter-era gasoline shortages, now with the prospect of $6 gasoline looming before us, we have little to show for our grand hopes and great visions. We’re still talking about moving off foreign oil even as the buzzword “energy independence” has become firmly entrenched in our lexicon. So little, so late.
What happened? (more…)
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Posted in Economics & Globalization, Politics & Public Policy, tagged 21st Century, adopting, agitators, allegations, alter the way we live, American, analogy, Asean Plus Six, Asian, bailout, Barack Obama, barriers, block, bode, body, borders, bottom line, brainwash, broken, bureaucracy, business, capitalism, challenges, change, civil unrest, codependent, coercion, collectivist, commonwealth, communism, comparative advantage, competition, concentration of power, confederacy, conflicting, consolidate, conspiracy, conspirator, Constitution, cooperation, corporation, crisis, culture, currency, customs union theory, deconstruct, deliver on, downside, economics, emergent, enmeshed, evolution by stealth, expedient, experiment, fascism, fearmonger, federation, fiction, finance, foolhardy, force, foreign policy, framework, free trade, freedom, Friedmanesque, Friedmanism, future, global, globalization, goal, groups, guarantee, H.G. Wells, H.W. Bush, history, hope, horizon, human, idealism, imagined, impersonal, in name only, independence, individual, interregionalism, is United States, Jerome Corsi, jobs, justice, language, law, legal, legislation, liberty, lies, logical extension, maps, market, Media & Social Media, member, metaphor, military complex, myth, NAFTA, NASCO, nation, national sovereignty passe, nationalization, nature, neocapitalist, neoclassical economists, net gain, new deal, new economy, new empire, new world order, North American, NWO, offset, opponents, opportunity, opt out, optimal currency area theory, organization, oversell, peacetime, policy, policymakers, practical, pragmatic, president, Prime Minister Brown, principles, progress, promise, proposals, prosperity, psychology, public opinion, push, raindrops, real, reality, reconstruct, Reform, regional security complex, regionalization, relationship, representative, representative democracy, rights, Ross Perot, rule of law, scale, secure, security, serious questions, shift, Single Market and Economy, socialism, speak out, specialization, SPP, states, stimulus, subservient, succession, SuperCorridor Project, sustainable, theory, threat, timeline, Trans-Texas Corridor, transnational, transnational progressives, treaty, trend, Union, unrest, Urban Legend, usher in, Utopian, venture, wages, weakest link, WFM, Woodrow Wilson, workers, world federalism movement, world leaders on October 30, 2009|
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President H.W. Bush, borrowing a phrase from an earlier era, popularized the term “New World Order” (NWO) in the early 1990s. But while the New World Order has legitimate roots, it has come to be associated with little more than paranoid conspiracy.
Given what we’ve witnessed in recent times, however, is it wise to continue to dismiss the notion out-of-hand?
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Posted in Economics & Globalization, Politics & Public Policy, Technology & Science, tagged academia, academic inflation, ahead, America, American Dream, analysis, analytical, appliances, applicants, bachelor of arts, bankruptcy, banks, benchmark, Big Business, blame, brain drain, branding, business, capitalism, career, Century, CEO, child, China, collectible, college, columnist, compete, competitive, complaints, conglomerates, consequences, consumerism, consumers, corporate, creative, Daniel Pink, debate, debt, decline, degree, disadvantage, disparity, disposable, doctoral, doctors, Dollar, down waging, downwardly mobile, economic, economic insecurity, Economics & Globalization, economists, education, educators, elite, ethics, factory, family, fast buck, feudalism, finances, financial, First World, forecast, foreclosure, free market, free trade, future, game theory, global, globalism, globalization, Google, grad school, Great Recession, Green, hegemony, hidden costs, high end, higher ed, higher learning, hiring, house of cards, human rights, illusion, imbalance, immigration, implications, India, inferior, inhumane, innovator, insource, international, interview, irreplaceable, jobless recovery, jobs, jobs creation, Keynesian, labor, laborers, ladder, laissez faire, Lawrence Katz, lawyers, leaders, level playing field, lies, life span, living wage, longevity, loss, low end, lowest common denominator, Main Street, make work, market, marketing, marriage, masters, MBAs, Microsoft, middle class, MIT, motivated, myths, NAFTA, neocapitalism, new normal, New York Times, noncompetitive, NYT, offshoring, Old South, opportunism, outsource, panacea, perfect market, Ph.D, planned obsolescence, policy, pool, poor workmanship, poverty, prediction, pride, problem solving, product, progress, projections, protections, purchase, quality, quality control, race to the bottom, ranking, rational, reality, recruit, Reform, repairs, resume, retailer, retrain, revenues, rise, risk, saturated, scam, schools, security, silent depression, skills, slave, slippery slope, spending, standard of living, STEM, stimulus, student loans, substitute, succeed, success, superpower, survive, Susan Hockfield, sweat shop, sweatshops, talent, taxation, teachers, Technology & Science, Third World, Thomas Friedman, thrive, tipping point, Todd Martin, trade, traders, training, transnational, trend, unemployment, unethical, university, untouchables, US, wages, Wall Street, warranty, waste, Whole New Mind, workers, working class, workplace, world, zero sum on October 25, 2009|
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If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
— Henry David Thoreau
In “The New Untouchables “, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman argues that in this downwardly mobile economy there is no room for average. Extraordinary is what it takes to survive and thrive in the modern workplace.
I get that.
Yet for all my appreciation for education — I hold two degrees so I do, in fact, lean in favor of Friedman’s premise that education is key to American competitiveness — his education-as-a-panacea argument oversteps its reach.
Most strikingly, Friedman’s description of a successful “untouchable” American worker isn’t a portrait of educational endowment at all. Friedman’s favorite descriptors, instead, refer to personality attributes: entrepreneur (risk taker), creative (visionary), analytical (critical thinker), and persuasive (charismatic). The obvious problem with Friedman’s pin-the-tail-on-the-wrong-donkey premise is that temperament is inborn — teachers, let alone parents, cannot instill personality characteristics that are not there to begin with.
Friedman’s eagerness to finger the usual suspects — schools — also ignores six reasons why Americans are at a competitive disadvantage in the global era. Here we examine those realities, and the future these changing times have in store.
First, there are more of us occupying this country — and this planet at large — than ever before. At some point, the mathematics of population growth have to matter. The sheer number of people in today’s workforce suggests more and more people are competing for the same jobs even as we adopt more and more technology to displace human hands. That’s not a sign of a lack of education; it’s a sign that business owners comprehend that productivity gadgets and gizmos don’t require breaks, a salary or workers’ compensation.
It comes down to the numbers.
Second, I would argue the inverse in response to Friedman’s suggestion that there just isn’t enough talent to be had here in the States. Over the past 50-some years there are more colleges turning out more graduates on an annual basis than employers of the past had access to. Many foreign nationals, in fact, come to the US for higher education opportunities. On the flip side, there are only so many engineers, M.B.A.s, lawyers, scientists and the like universities can churn out before higher-end fields become saturated in much the same way low-end jobs are chalk full of contenders.
It’s no longer merely a question of whether there are clear winners and losers on the academic front.
Job scarcity is a threat, in part, because of the decades-long trend of mergers, acquisitions and a globalized labor pool. Consider: There are generally fewer than a dozen heavyweights in a given industry — everything from mainstream media to appliance manufacturing. This trend does not bode well for domestic job expansion. And if jobs aren’t available to begin with, it is tough to gain a competitive advantage even with above-average potential. So what we are seeing, in this author’s opinion, is an over-supply of talent.
But that doesn’t mean the proponents of Friedman’s dire self-fulfilling prophecy won’t get their wish.
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