One day while at lunch, the question was asked amongst us "What would you encourage your child to pursue as a profession"? Interestingly, nobody discussed having their children pursue the "hard" sciences such as chemistry, physics, or biology. Even engineering did not score very high on the list. The top professions that were discussed were those that you find in the growing market of service industries. Professions such as doctors, lawyers, accountants, and business consultants (a catch-all for change management, technology, risk management, and process improvement specialists). When we were discussing the reasons behind our choices, we discovered that we all agreed the U.S.A is losing its edge in terms of technology and development and could not compete when it came to industry (labor). While we didn't all agree on the root cause(s) for the decline, and some of us even had difficulty deciding which was more important, innovation or industry, we all understood that the flagging confidence in our country's ability to maintain its technological dominance was the reason for our choices. With that mindset, we see a self-fulfilling prophesy. We need more scientists and engineers, but since the perception is that there is no money in it, we don't have anyone fill those niches.
So involved in the discussion were we that it continued after the lunch hour was over. We talked about the situation as we all rode back to the client site and then more that evening after the clients had all left the site. While we couldn't pin down between us the exact cause (at least in our mind) of our concerns, we could all argree on the outcome. America would cease to be a super power and instead simply exist as a first-world country. In effect, similar to the European nations.
As we prognosticated on America's future, we all agreed that the "coming threat" to our technological dominance was China. China is spending money on research and development, they have a good number of scientists trained by western universities that are working for the home team, and above all they are "focused". The majority of the folks who were involved in the conversation believe America's lack of focus was the leading cause for our performance woes. We've always had a focus for our energies in the U.S.A. After World War II, when America could really be called a super power, the cold war and "red threat" fueled our country. Large sums of money were spent on weapons development and defense. However, it was during that time frame that America sprinted to the lead both technologically and economically. We were focused. We had a plan of action to follow. Our efforts were concerted and our monies were spent where they would bring the most benefit (more or less) in relation to the rest of the world. Now, however, we seem to lack clear goals and initiatives for the country. Perhaps we can become focussed again without having to resort to the tried-and-true "external threat to country" routine.