By Jason Caci
The United States has an economy that relies mostly on imported goods. Unlike the United States, countries such as Germany, Japan, and China produce high quality material. Of course, one will point out that the United States still has the highest GDP in the world. However, China will lead the world in GDP in approximately twenty-five years. Not only will it lead the world in GDP, but it will accelerate at such a rapid rate that it will separate itself from the rest of the world and rise as the unequivocally most dominant superpower in the world.
PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that China will climb to the top in GDP in Purchasing Power Parity by 2050, although I believe they will rise to the top sooner than that. Regardless, we as a nation need to have a proactive mindset and take initiative now by positioning ourselves as the cultural model; an aspiration for every other nation in the world! It is not an obvious solution, but it accomplishes the job. One of the biggest problems we have as a nation is that we make decisions for the next ten minutes instead of the next ten years, and now more than ever is the time to make the home run play.
First, let’s start with the youngbloods. We need to overhaul our education system and place an emphasis on STEM programs. On September 25, 2017, President Trump signed a Presidential Memo that expands funding for computer science programs in schools. According to the White House website, it “sets a goal of devoting at least $200 million per year within the Department of Education toward advancing this effort.” This is a good start to the overhaul, and we need to continue to preach the importance of STEM because it will overtake manual labor as jobs become more and more automated.
This past January, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos claimed, according to the United States Department of Education website, that “Common Core is dead.” However, some have debated whether or not this is the case. If it is not dead, then it is time to kill it. Common Core was made to challenge students intellectually. However, the implementation ended up being complex for complexity’s sake. Principals focus too much on the quantity of information given out rather than the quality. Throwing a bunch of material like a fastball to these children will make them memorize the information word for word and then forget about everything after the school year ends. Instead, less information should be given while stressing the importance of understanding why things are the way they are. We need to engage students in asking questions because that will get their brains churning. Students need time to process and understand the concepts. From that, they will improve students’ analytical skills, which are more essential, as opposed to memorization.
We as the United States needs to produce more high-quality material instead of growing the economy of whatever country is supplying goods to us. If one takes a look at Germany, it has one of the best automobile and technology industries in the world. For American citizens born in the United States, while bringing immigrants to advance in engineering and medicine is a good idea, it does not solve the issue of the low work ethic Americans have. Immigrants from India and China will continue to enter the United States because they have the hardest work ethic in the world. Additionally, China and India currently have the two fastest growing economies in the world. As a result, Americans will have an identity crisis because a rise in diversity will occur more rapidly than it has risen recently.
In order to solve this issue, we need to develop a strong work ethic and stop relying on others to help us out. This comes from strict parenting and, as mentioned previously, school material that involves understanding it rather than simply reception. When parents discipline their children, kids learn to achieve success by earning it rather than looking to other sources. Furthermore, the children learn to have a strong morality. From this, the children reject degeneracy, laziness, and stupidity by not associating themselves with others that have a bad influence. The way we develop as individuals comes from within.
Others would look up to us as a model country for what everyone should aspire to be. We would send a message to countries such as China and Russia that we are still the superpower of the world. People underestimate the importance of culture for a country’s power. A well-established culture has a domino effect because it leads to smarter folks, more production (which leads to a better economy), and therefore a creates a great image of the country to be admired by the rest of the world.
Sources:
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/economy/the-world-in-2050.html