Colin Henderson
The potential for ingenuity and entrepreneurship remains high but, in recent years, it has not received the support needed. US federal spending on research and development – such as funding for the National Science Foundation – has fallen over the past eight years. This has been driven by the belief that seedcorn investment by government does not work. The fact that the internet, a big motor of prosperity and job creation, began as a government-funded research project seems to have been forgotten.
We now need to encourage investment in new high-technology industries such as clean energy and environmental technology. These are sectors where we have lacked political leadership not just recently but for decades. We need urgently to find alternatives to fossil fuels, invest in a smart electricity grid and make our cars, our homes and our offices more efficient. Rising unemployment should also force us to look to the environmental sector, where it is estimated that an extra 2m-3m well-paid, high-tech jobs could be created by 2030. These green jobs have the potential to create tremendous economic opportunities.
We will not, however be able to grasp these opportunities unless our children are equipped with the mathematics and science skills needed to compete in a global marketplace. We need, too, to close the digital divide. The US ranks only 15th in the world in broadband access, with 45m adults without it at home. The next president must make a top priority of building this 21st century infrastructure, much as president Dwight D. Eisenhower saw the interstate highway system as vital to the nation’s economic growth in the mid-20th century.
future economy US schmidt
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