Top 10 Innovative Countries: USA About to Fall?
The USA is holding on by its fingernails as the 3rd most innovative country on earth, as The Economist Intelligence Unit study shows:
- Japan
- Switzerland
- U.S.
- Sweden
- Finland
- Germany
- Denmark
- Taiwan
- Netherlands
- Israel
Why would a country founded on reason and technological advancement consistently lose traction on its competitive advantage: innovation? For several reasons that are commonly misconceived in the popular media:
1. Our biggest worry should NOT be that American manufacturing and its jobs are being exported to foreign countries like China, India and Mexico.
As an example, if GM is forced to close a plant in the US due to costs and move that plant to Mexico do we really suffer? The US loses thousands of jobs and domestic capacities due to layoffs like these, yet should we worry? The answer is no, we are clearly not leaders in manufacturing and haven’t been arguably for the last 40 years. We should not compete in markets where we do not have a decided advantage. I’ve always pictured Globalization as a food chain. The people at the top create the ideas and plan for distribution, the next set of people manufacture physical goods or support the service industry.
When an American factory worker loses a job to a Mexican factory worker, they in turn produce a cheaper car for world export. The global market then distributes profits back to the Americans who’s patents, managerial and marketing skills carried the project. Thus, those Americans are now able to create more high level jobs that young, educated Americans profit from.
Quite simply, the core competency of the USA is to draw entrepreneurs to us from all around the world, implement their innovations through science and retain the royalties to support the economy.
2. Then what countries, if not China, India and Mexico are we competing against?
Our competitors are countries who foster and nurture innovative minds. They are Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and Finland. These nations tap into our creative edge and often outshine us in several fields including management, science, and product development.
3. Is there really potential to fall further down the ladder?
You bet your ass, as Chris Money author of “The Republican War on Science” would say. Scientific American’s review of his book said,
“Thomas Jefferson would be appalled. More than two centuries after he helped to shape a government based on the idea that reason and technological advancement would propel the new United States into a glorious future, the political party that now controls that government has largely turned its back on science. Even as the country and the planet face both scientifically complex threats and remarkable technological opportunities, many Republican officeholders reject the most reliable sources of information and analysis available to guide the nation. As inconceivable as it would have been to Jefferson–and as dismaying as it is to growing legions of today’s scientists–large swaths of the government in Washington are now in the hands of people who don’t know what science is. More ominously, some of those in power may grasp how research works but nonetheless are willing to subvert science’s knowledge and expert opinion for short-term political and economic gains.”
In brief, the science that drives innovation, our core competency, is stifled. Topics like creationism send our children years backwards in their classrooms. If they are unable to excel using reasoned scientific findings how much of a chance do you think they will have when American industry leaders begin looking for the next brightest minds?
The ban on funding for embryonic stem cell research has led to a mass exodus of biotech engineers and stem cell scientists to foreign countries with grants in hand.
4. How can the USA strengthen its position as the leader in innovation?
- We need an administration who can distinguish between legitimate research and ideologically driven pseudoscience.
- Create programs that nurture the ideas of brilliant American minds.
- Grants that entice the importation of exceptional international talent; offer options that allow these candidates to stay and keep their research in the US for the benefit of the US.
- We need to fund projects that safeguard American science. Seed Magazine’s article Why the US Should Spring for a New Particle Accelerator says,
“A US-based [Accelerator] would attract thousands of talented scientists and students from around the world. As has happened in the past, when highly talented and motivated scientists from around the world come to the US to work, many will choose to remain and continue contributing to the nation’s technological leadership, which in turn will stimulate domestic economic growth through scientific and technological innovation. Moreover, some of the world’s best scientists undoubtedly will join the nation’s universities to be close to the project, thus enriching the scientific vitality of these institutions. US academic research institutions are recognized for their direct and easy access to the world’s premier research facilities and infrastructure; hosting the [Accelerator] would extend this pattern of success into the 21st century. In short, constructing and operating a world-class facility will create an unparalleled intellectual environment to stimulate innovation and creativity.”
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windcity01 said
am August 6 2007 @ 9:50 pm
So you really think that we need to bring in more foreigners so that American can make more money? What’s the problem with the folks we have now? Why aren’t they good enough for you?
Jerad Kaliher said
am August 6 2007 @ 10:41 pm
@windcity01, absolutely yes. Like I said, one of our key strengths is being able to lure the brightest minds away and have them work with us and ultimately for us. If you could take the top 5% of just this country or the top 1% of the world to comprise a team, which one would you choose?
Wild Bill said
am August 7 2007 @ 11:27 pm
I agree, bring in people who want to work, just make sure they are here legally. Although I do not agree with you on embryonic stem cell research the rest of this article is dead on. Even the creationism part. America needs to get back to being a nation of ideas and inventions.
Jerad Kaliher said
am August 7 2007 @ 11:32 pm
@Wild Bill, I agree, everyone should be under the scrutiny of the system when coming into the country. The goal isn’t to have people fly under the radar, have a breakthrough and fly back home, filing their patents elsewhere. We want a stake and we should help build these people up, whether American or Immigrant, so that they can make a difference.
And sure, I may have been a bit too hasty with my ‘mass exodus’ when describing stem cell research.
Jay Ehret said
am August 10 2007 @ 7:31 am
Republicans are responsible for our fall in the innovation standings because of a belief in God? Please.
I think Thomas Jefferson might be more appalled by a government intent on removing evidence of God from every nook and cranny of the nation. The same man who wrote “that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights” might also be surprised at the attempts to create a nation absent of God. Jefferson might also be upset that scientists with a political agenda use his name to further the notion that belief in God is a problem when it comes to the advancement of our nation.
Jerad Kaliher said
am August 10 2007 @ 8:22 am
@Jay, I agree with you, it isn’t our simple belief in God that is stinting our ability to innovate. It is the ideologies that influence religious belief and denounce reason. Although Jefferson believed in a Creator, his god was a deists god. It is the same god that is often confused as the Christian God in Einstein’s quotes as well.
A quote from Wikipedia:
“Deism differs from theism in that according to Deism God does not interfere with human life and the laws of the universe.
Deists typically reject supernatural events (prophecy, miracles) and divine revelation prominent in organized religion, along with holy books and revealed religions that assert the existence of such things. Instead, Deists hold that religious beliefs must be founded on human reason and observed features of the natural world, and that these sources reveal the existence of one God or supreme being.”
So when Jefferson is quoting “Creator or God” he is in fact speaking of a supreme being that is detached from the activities of humanity. I think he might be appalled to see religious doctrine influencing political agenda as one of the largest disasters of the modern world.
“All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.”
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826
Matt said
am August 24 2007 @ 5:42 pm
Nice to see an article so focused on American standing int he world while forgetting that those jobs being exported take food out of families mouths here. It’s nice that the brightest minds in the world could be attracted here, but not everyone fits into that catagory. What happens to the simple common man? Dont you ever forget that we make up the overwhelming majority and history has shown again and again and again: Hold us down too long, we’ll turn you over like a sack of sand and watch you drift away on the winds of change.
Jerad Kaliher said
am August 24 2007 @ 9:34 pm
@Matt, my argument insists that innovation has always been and still is our core competency. If you strip any performing organization of it’s main function it withers and dies. By looking out for our ABILITY to innovate we are in fact creating and stabilizing jobs for every American.
History may suggest that common men do overturn governments, but the insight for those revolutions are from a select few who are not always all that common. You might even say they were innovators.
dave said
am August 30 2007 @ 6:18 am
My question is: How much longer do you think Japan will be on the top of that list?
It seems like we are headed towards a slightly different but same path as the US. Straight down. Not right now. But, 10 years from now.
Jerad Kaliher said
am August 30 2007 @ 7:09 am
@dave, Interesting question. I would say that Japan is pretty heavily invested in US innovation, both figuratively and literally. Because they have had such a huge surplus over the years they buy the one thing that is out on the market without any caps – US bonds. If we ever have a major economic downturn we will be taking Japan with us and I think they know it.
I’ve always been a huge fan of Japanese culture and business. I even joke with friends, when they get back from trips I ask them how “The Future” was.
dave said
am August 30 2007 @ 7:51 am
And suprisingly, they also feel the same way. They still stick to their guns and their ideologies. But, here we are googling over the interesting innovation, technology and uniqueness of Japanese gadgets and they are always interested about what is on the other side of the Pacific. For example, the IPhone.
Like I always say, best to have the both worlds.
Still, we are losing the ground. Slowly, but surely.
Jman said
am May 13 2010 @ 10:34 am
The problem is that our people are not motivated enough to do any job other than extreme low level. Plus, they are content to do that low level job in a really shitty way.
If the population isn’t willing to move “up the curve” it is hard for us to compete.