More on US competitiveness

Two articles appeared over the last couple of days on US competitiveness. The first reports a speech by former Speaker of House Newt Gingrich and the second is Jim Turley throwing a cold bucket of water on the whole lack of engineers in the US argument. See the On Target: Embedded Systems posts from last month on this topic. I have included Newt’s recommendations below.

Like most of the recommendations from politicians it reminds me of the Monty Python sketch called "How to do it." Which goes something like this:

"But first, here's Jackie to tell you all how to rid the world of all known diseases."
"Well, first of all, become a doctor and discover a marvelous cure for something, so there'll never be any diseases ever again."
"Thanks, Jackie. Great idea."

Anyway there are recommendations from an embedded.com article, the first couple are even possible to implement:

• Create a system of civil justice to reduce the burden of lawsuits and give incentives to young people to go into professions other than the law.
• Dramatically simplify the tax code to favor savings, entrepreneurship, investment and constant modernization of equipment and technology.
• Make math and science learning equal to any in the world and educate enough young Americans in science to enable the United States to compete successfully with other well-educated societies.
• Invest in the potential scientific breakthroughs in energy, space and the environment.
• Create, via high tech, "a 21st century intelligent health system" that would improve the health of the populace while dramatically lowering health care costs and making American health care a value export and source of revenue.

These recommendations are applicable to any country thinking about is place in the World during the second half or so of this century.