For the first time since the ranking has been compiled, the US has fallen out of the top 10 in Bloomberg’s Innovation Index. South Korea and Sweden retained the top two spots, while Singapore jumped three places to No 3.
The ranking uses seven criteria, including research-and-development spending and concentration of high-tech public companies.
Education was cited as the main reason for the US falling to 11th place, with the share of new science and engineering graduates in the labor force weighing on the score. Value-added manufacturing also fell from the year before.
While the US slacked in the education department, it was one of the reasons that China jumped two places to rank 19th. The criterion was also a reason for Singapore’s climb.
America’s slide, following a lack of interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) majors among the country’s student population, does not show signs of letting up, according to some. And it is not just lagging with regard to education.
“I see no evidence to suggest that this trend will not continue,” Robert D Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation in Washington, DC, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. “Other nations have responded with smart, well-funded innovation policies like better R&D tax incentives, more government funding for research, more funding for technology commercialization initiatives.”
Only behind a big wall casting a long shadow of ignorance will the Evangelical white Christian supremacists maintain they’re Making America Great Again. Americans will miss it when it’s all gone.
This was started with Reagan when he famously said " Government is the problem not the sloution". Well Free Enterprise has shown it is not up to the task either. Privatization of education in particular has been a disaster. There are some social necessities where profit should not be allowed into the picture, education and health care are two of them.
No disipline, everyman for himself, the freedom to not study the hard stuff , rugged individualism,the overwhelming desire for the quick and easy back, and instant gratification as the national model, these are all of the reasons the US is falling behind and will contuinue to fall behind.
There was only one reason that the US was ever considered great in the first place and that was because it was virtually the only country on earth that remained unscathed by the Second World War.
"..it was virtually the only country on earth that remained unscathed by the Second World War"
This will also be the reason why US will sue for peace should ever a major conflict engulf mainland US. The US population have never experienced the scale of death and destruction seen in Europe and Asia during WW11.
They have no stomach for it. It’s alien to them. Contrast that to the experience of the Russians and Chinese where tens of millions of lives were lost. They know what real sacrifice is about. And they can do that again.
This is US’s greatest weakness. No stomach for death on her soil. You can gauge the reaction of Americans post 9/11.