Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 11th Jan 2012 00:14 UTC, submitted by Elv13
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Member since:
2005-07-24
What you are seeing is a steady decrease in the ability of the US to compete effectively in the world market. You're looking in the wrong places for a solution. A change in economic model is not going to fix the complacent attitudes of adults and the poor performance of our high school students compared to the rest to the world.
The US's 15 year olds rank 32nd in science, 30th in math, and 17th in reading, according to the 2009 OECD results:
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/31/28/46660259.pdf
That out of about 65 countries participating. The US is outclassed in education by such countries as Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Latvia, and many more. Some that you may not even have heard of. The #1 city in the world in all 3 tested areas? Shanghai, China.
And year by year, the US rankings are *getting worse*.
You can't expect the standard of living to be rising in a (currently) 1st world country when 3rd world kids regularly run circles around their kids in education.
And you're not going fix that with a change in economic model. In fact, I'm not sure it can be fixed at all. History is full of examples of nations rising to great power, becoming fat, complacent, and sassy, and declining due to the resulting internal rot. It's a very common pattern. And our grand United States appear to be right on schedule. All the indications are clearly there when viewed in an objective manner.
In short, it appears to me that the sad state of affairs is not due to some inferior economic model or external influence, but is a direct a result of a problem with the people of the United States, ourselves.
-Steve
Edited 2012-01-14 21:22 UTC