Globalization

A question was asked recently in one of my classes:

Is globalization bad for America?

To be sure, there are quite a few arguments out there about competition, market forces, level playing field, increased area of opportunity, and blah blah blah. Most critics and overeducated folks seem to think that globalization is good for America.

I disagree, but oh so respectfully.

Globalization is bad for America because we aren’t prepared to ride the next wave of technology and business.

Why?

Let’s look at our university/collegiate system. How many people do you know with technology degrees? Wouldn’t you agree that the majority of people you know with degrees either have a) a bachelor of arts or b) a business degree of some sort?

Don’t you think that the wave of the future is in…biotech? Nanotech? Robotics? How is a kid with an BA in English going to get a job in biotech except as someone’s administrative assistant?

Has it occurred to anyone that public colleges have been teaching the same set of classical material, more or less, since our country was founded? And in the same fashion, again, more or less, by sitting your ass down in a classroom, attending a lecture, taking notes, and taking a test to see how well you memorized or maybe, just maybe, can apply what you’ve learned? Doesn’t anyone think there is anything WRONG with this model?

In twenty years, if that, we will be left in the dust of the rest of the world. Rendered obsolete. Irrelevant. I see it happening now as we tumble slowly into a little itty bitty depression. While the rest of the world got crazy just like we did with the housing cheese whiz, they did something we didn’t – diversified just a wee bit their personal portfolios. They didn’t invest all their money in one place, nor did they pull out every bit of equity. European countries have better labor laws that protect workers from being arbitrarily dismissed, or companies from being sold and laying off workers willy nilly, so they have more financial security than we do here in the U.S. (dog eat dog). Other countries aren’t poised to go in the economic shitter. We are.

We have a pretty good political system (even if it is staffed by and large by people I wouldn’t trust to tie my shoes); we have a beautiful country (even if we fill it daily with plastic cups, coke cans, cigarette butts, and wrappers from the drive thru); we have plenty of food (although it’s all tied up with the “we will pay you not to plant” or conversely “we will pay you ONLY to plant heaps and heaps of corn that we will use to make ethanol because we are FAR TOO CHEAP to develop fuel cells”). We certainly have plenty of people. We certainly have plenty of intellectual capital, if you assume that for every three people, one person actually has a functioning brain, and will actually use their powers for good and not evil!

Ah, I know I’m being snarky but the point is this:

We are becoming obsolete. While we beat our chest and say “we are Americans, therefore, we are the best” the rest of the world is innovating us into history. Our stubbornness around things like stem cell research means that life saving technology (not to mention words that American investors like to hear: lucrative) is going to be developed and patented by researchers and scientists in another country. And then we will be in the position of crawling around with our hands out, begging for whatever cures they find. People do this today – people go to India or Japan where there are no restrictions, where people with paralysis or other spinal cord injuries can be treated with stem cells and have regained mobility. No doctor in the U.S. will treat them. How sad is that? A U.S. citizen has to leave the country to obtain medical treatment to better his life because the morality of the country prevents him from obtaining medical treatment necessary.

That’s where we are folks. Not in terms of morality. We are becoming blind. We are becoming blind to our need to change and adapt. Not just medicine. Not just government. Not just education. Not just immigration. Or our carbon footprints (oooh, how trendy. I can proudly say that our family has recycled since we were LITTLE CHILDREN and it pisses me off to hear people tell me about how they just started recycling. WHATEVER. Talk to the hand). Not just healthcare. If we are going to remain competitive, and stay “Number One”, we have to change.

Look at today’s kids. Honestly, do you know a single kid that you think is going to amount to anything? Out of the group of gifted kids I went to school with, one became a vet, one is a pharmaceutical researcher for Bayer, one teaches linguistics at college, one died as he was obtaining a degree at a seminary (cancer, I think), one got a degree in English but later moved back home due to a family tragedy and is now a secretary, one majored in theater (is not gay, although male) and at last rumor worked at Dollywood, one dropped out of college and went to work at his father’s concrete business, and one became a nurse. Oh, wait, yet another who got a degree in broadcasting, who now works for (or did) a Christian broadcasting network and apparently has a passel of children.

Did any of us do anything with our lives that mattered (myself included)?

No.

And neither will today’s children.

The kids you see at the theater, or in your neighborhood, or in their little brat pack at Publix? They won’t either. They have NO CONCEPT of any world outside their own immediate concerns, and their parents don’t either.

I become more and more convinced that the people who lead us, the people who run our schools and our civic organizations don’t see the big picture either.

We have to change how we operate. We have to change how we think. We have to become more competitive. If you don’t know how to think, get a job in trade. If you can’t add, you need to be taught how to do something you do have an aptitude for. I’m all about figuring out what people can do, and teaching them how to do it. Education should be for everyone – you should all have access to education – but I didn’t say everyone needed to learn the same thing! Learn to read, learn to write, learn math – enough to balance a checkbook. After that….are you really not a people person but something about math and…say….quasars and pulsars appeal to you? Fine. Astronomy. I’ve nothing against steering people toward careers they seem suited towards, as long as folks agree with the choice. Shit, I wish someone had done this for me. I wouldn’t be almost 35 and JUST GRAUDATING FROM COLLEGE.

I am just rambling; but the point remains the same. To stay ahead of the curve, you must constantly change. Our school systems, primary, secondary, and collegiate do a hideous job preparing our students for careers that make a difference. Shit, they do a bad job preparing students for any career (case in point: I have an employee with a dual degree who cannot write a basic sentence to save her poor little life).