Affluenza and Competitiveness

Competition is good. Change is healthy.

I think you'd better believe that if you expect to prosper in the future.

I spend a lot of time thinking about outsourcing and the rise of China and India. I ask myself at least weekly, "what part of my job can/should be outsourced at a cheaper rate?"

As Americans, we have a sense of entitlement to ever rising standards of living, wages, and material gain. Our affluence, however, may be backfiring, as we spend less time educating our minds and, like the grasshopper of a different parable, saving for the future.

Read a great article in Fortune recently. It suggests that our kids spend more time watching TV, playing video games, and not exercising their brains than their counterparts in China, India, and South Korea. In those countries, parents push and push for excellence in science, math, and technology. Without technological leadership, the article argues, economic prosperity becomes a challenge. In those countries, they push kids away from the arts.

Now, I think there is a role for the arts, don't get me wrong, because a solid liberal arts education provides critical thinking and sythensizing capabilities that a purely technical one will not, which to me, is a key for adapting to change. That being said, however, I would agree that our society has moved farther and farther away from a serious commitment to general mathematic and scientific competency.

This is cause for concern.

The real question is: what do I do so that my kids are ready to compete? Actual, the real question may be: what do I need to do so that I remain competitive?