U.S. Edge on Ideas
China and India will always train more scientists and engineers. But at least America’s still got the best environment for ideas to grow.
Obama suggested increasing U.S. investment in R&D, a good and welcome step. But what will really determine U.S. competitiveness in the global ideas market isn’t the money we can pour into the system. It’s the strength of the system itself — the social, political, and cultural institutions that shape ideas from start to finish. As long as the U.S. maintains its comparative advantage — an open and flexible culture and a web of institutions, attitudes, and relationships that move ideas from the lab to the marketplace — there’s no reason why the future isn’t in its grasp.
