“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better start running.”
Friedman used this African proverb to convey a main theme he wants us to hear. It’s a jungle out there and the US better get going if we’re to keep the lead. So, are we running, or are resting in the sun?
I agree with him, science and engineering are vital to our nation’s future. Our country is working less and in school less than other developed nations. We are resting and falling behind further and further each day.
In the case of developing technology, it is sometimes easier to start from scratch than to change mechanisms that have been around for years. India and China have had the benefit of learning from our mistakes and have been able to set up businesses and laws which have embraced the hi-tech world from the get go. We are neither resting, nor running, but merely having difficulty changing our ways.
I don’t really know what people in other countries are doing. In some areas, the U.S. does seem to be losing its position of leadership: supercomputing, stem cell research, maybe nanoscale manufacturing. But the best students in the U.S. are world-class, and most people will work hard when rewards for doing so are available. Narratives of spiritual decline are usually wrong, a function of one generation looking back in time and idealizing how they used to be. One thing that’s always characterized Americans is the willingness to hustle; it’s hard to see how that’s changed.
The government is just trotting. In civil society, we have many runners. But, we also have too many people without running shoes. This is where government direction would help. Flattening isn’t just global. It is also intranational. The technological advances enable suburban and rural Americans to compete for higher end urban jobs. This is creating shifts in where people live. And it creates opportunities in areas that have been unable to prosper. Unless the government provides better education and infrastructure, many will be left behind domestically. While a number of businesses are taking the initiative, that may not be enough.