The dean of faculty recently sent out an article from the New York Times entitled It’s a Flat World, After All. Use BugMeNot to read it if you don’t feel like registering.
I feel like this article is the first article on this subject which truly faces the music. It’s real and it’s not sugar-coated. I have come to realize it is futile to erect a barrier between the United States and all the other nations on the planet. If such an initiative were even to be successful (as the current administration hopes), it would only last for several decades at which point it would cause a caustrosphic economic collapse.
The era in which the United States controlled the world’s prosperity is coming to an end. We can no longer afford to be arrogant. We will be forced to compete once again. If we don’t meet this challenge, the United States will fall much like Rome did.
To me the signs are already apparent. There are few countries in the world in which obesity is considered to be an outbreak. You know it is a bad sign when the cookie monster has to change his tune.
Additionally conservatism in the United States appears to be an all time high. Somehow we managed to reelect Bush. People cared more about “moral” values than any other issue. I find it absurd that morals have come to define who should be elected to office since the last time I checked we didn’t have a state sponsored religion. At its heart conservatism is an attempt to keep the future as similiar to the past as possible. We can not keep the status quo by simply doing what we have always done.The world has become a different place than it was in 1950.
Technology has enabled developing countries to catapult to the forefront of development. However the United States can counter this, our biggest problem is apathy. Americans are satified with the way things have been. Once the majority have realized that there is a problem it will be too late.
If our habits do not change we will not continue on our current trajectory. Getting something for nothing will no longer work. There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch (Tanstafl) not matter what anyone says to the contary.