Keeping up With Global Competition

In “What’s Our Sputnik,” Friedman (2010) makes a startling accurate point that we need to refocus our energies and our money on bettering our country from within rather than fighting wars that should be fought by those other countries. Rather than spending money to secure our oil interests in other countries, we should be investing in the science education and alternative sources of energy in our own country. Friedman (2010) is right: like Taiwan, we need to get rich digging inside ourselves and unlocking our entrepreneurs and scientists.

The first thing that needs to happen is for the US to pull out of the war efforts in these other countries. The funding that is being filtered toward war efforts should be turned toward alternative forms of energy and research and development in these fields. Government initiatives should be offered for students who are entering science and engineering fields that would support our mission to cut our reliance on oil. Initiatives should be offered for companies who are able to drastically reduce or eliminate our reliance on oil. Initiatives should be offered to companies that are creating equipment that harnesses sustainable forms of energy. With the increased drive to “go green” and develop alternative energy sources and technology, there will be an explosion of interest and motivation toward science and engineering fields.

I do not feel as though the United States is on a course toward improvement. Something drastic and definitive will have to happen to get the attention of the administration and the country. Maybe another highly industrialized nation will have to eliminate its dependence on oil in order for the US to see that it can be done. What would the US do if England was able to eliminate its dependence on oil and informed the US that they would no longer be helping in the “fight on terror?” With our reliance on foreign oil eliminated, our interest and investment in these other war-torn countries would also be eliminated. We could then turn our efforts back home and on the betterment of our nation. While only 5% of our nation is employed in STEM careers, STEM industries account for more than 50% of our economic growth (Department of Labor, 2007). With fewer and fewer students pursuing STEM careers, motivating and incentivizing STEM fields would be the best investment our country could make to maintain and improve economic growth.

Department of Labor. (2007). The STEM Workforce Challenge: the Role of the Public Workforce System in a National Solution for a Competitive Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Workforce. Retrieved from http://www.doleta.gov/youth_services/pdf/STEM_Report_4%2007.pdf.

Friedman, T. L. (2010, January 17). What’s our sputnik? [Op-Ed]. The New York Times [Late Edition (East Coast)], p. WK.8. Retrieved from the Walden University Library using the ProQuest Central database.