No Child Left Behind will ensure America continues to fall behind. Top talent in the USA is already largely imported as anyone looking at who is winning international math and science competitions will find. The education system (especially in math and hard sciences) is much more rigorous elsewhere -- even Europe is quite a bit ahead of North America.
Plenty of U.S. corporations are contributing to the economic problems of America by outsourcing their operations.. At the end of the day, U.S. corporations exist to make a profit for their shareholders -- not to create jobs for Americans and not to help the U.S. economy. That an equally qualified and harder working Chinese or Indian employee is willing to work for so much less makes me wonder why it took so long for outsourcing to really take off.
With the rampant grade inflation going on at the U.S. college level and the willingness of many colleges to accept just about anyone, it won't be long before a college degree is equally as meaningless as a high school diploma. Ever consider that corporations might be interested in subsidizing the cost of education because it's ultimately them who benefit? Supply and demand -- double the amount of university graduates and you have not only the ability to find better candidates but also the ability to pay them much less.
I would argue there is not much in the way of political opportunity in America. There are only 2 parties that ever have a chance of winning. With a largely ignorant populace who believe whatever the media tells them and the probability of one person's vote meaningfully affecting the outcome smaller than the likelihood of them winning the lotto, what actually motivates people to vote at all? Economically-speaking, taking the time to vote is irrational, so we rationalize it that we vote because it's this "special right" we have that other countries don't. I don't know what's special about it if it's meaningless. Seems more symbolic than anything else.
The DSM IV is thick enough that I'm pretty sure we could diagnose anyone with something if we tried hard enough. Thanks to American pharmaceutical companies, we can also "cure" them of their affliction. How much better this works than a sugar pill is difficult to ascertain in many instances. We can also thank American pharmaceutical companies for scaring the public into believing drugs are the only way to deal with problems. Let's call anyone who believes healthier eating, using herbal remedies, etc a "quack" because we can't patent those drugs and there is therefore no value for us in researching or educating the public on the fact many natural products are better choices.
Would American pharmaceutical companies ever tell Americans that eating more foods containing Omega-3 could very well eliminate their mood swings, depression, ADHD, etc? How about cinnamon for diabetes? There's no money in that. There's much more money in ensuring Americans stay sick and we can sell them uncovered and expensive drugs. Rather than invest in research, let's invest more in lobbying because clearly we get more for our money that way
Amazing how the government has managed to convince the public that illegal drugs are bad but Adderall (amphetamine salts) is good. Or how about Desoxyn which is basically-doctored approved meth? There was a story I heard a couple days ago about a guy with Irritable Bowel Syndrome who had been prescribed oxycontin to deal with the condition... Have doctors been reduced to legalized drug dealers? We're probably only a few years away from every underperforming child being doped up on nootropics to medically deal with their "learning disorder".
I like America but they have their problems just like any other country.
