Great Article by Ro Khanna this week in SF Gate:
Khanna makes a case for becoming the nation of innovators:
"What I learned is that to compete in a global economy, the best
American manufacturers expect innovation at every level - on the
assembly line, in middle management, by the executive team. This echoes
the conclusions of Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum, who looked into what's going on in the U.S. service sector as well as in manufacturing.
By
becoming a nation of innovators, we can add value to our products at
each level of manufacturing and distribution. This gives us a
productivity advantage over lower-wage countries such as China."
Khanna offers the following policy suggestions:
-- Ensuring every citizen has access to quality education
after high school, whether it's college or vocational training, and
that this education is tailored to jobs that exist in the marketplace.
-- Empowering teachers to use technology in every classroom.
-- Funding government institutions that do basic research, such as DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy), NIH (National Institutes of Health), NSF (National Science Foundation),
and in our own backyard, the Lawrence Berkeley and Livermore national
laboratories. These institutions develop groundbreaking technology that
can help spawn startups and provide existing American companies with a
competitive edge.
-- Providing immigrants who are contributing to
our country's innovation with green cards and a path to citizenship.
Consider the contributions of Andy Grove, Sergey Brin and Elon Musk. Enough said.
-- Streamlining bureaucracy and providing tax incentives to start new companies.