American Competitiveness

I'm trying to start a trend of writing a bit more about my lectures. Today I had a class focusing on Globalization and American Competitiveness. It basically looked at how America could be losing its lead in the international community, and how this should be addressed.

There have been some funding increases made by Congress, increasing R&D in the United States. However, many economists suggest there need to be more creative changes in the way we organize our institutions (government, education, industry, and their interactions) to foster innovation and growth.

The idea is that the United States is not the least expensive place to make things, so our competitive advantage lies in producing new and innovative items. If the United States doesn't continue to grow and change, we will lose our lead in the international community.

However, there really isn't much consensus (as far as I can tell) on exactly what the United States (or other nations) need to do to foster this growth. Definitely an interesting question to ponder.