July 2005 - A Nation of Neros

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Well, it’s June 3. I’m away next week, and this issue goes to the printer right as I return. That is, I need a paddle.

So, I cruise the Web for a news muse. The headlines on ABC, CBS, CNN,  Fox, LA Times, and MSNBC are essentially identical: “Michael Jackson Jury to Get Case.” The Chicago Tribune, Denver  Post, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Jose Mercury News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Washington Post all played down or failed to mention Mr. Jackson’s trial. They preferred bigger stuff;  say, an extra mile added to a marathon (Chicago), a Dali exhibit (Philadelphia), a football team firing its GM (Miami).

Two oddballs, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal,  actually lead with the very disappointing May employment numbers released today. Economists predicted 173,000 new jobs. We created 78,000 out of the 125,000 needed to stay even with new job seekers. But, hey, the unemployment rate went down a wee bit, because a bunch of people stopped looking for jobs or were no longer qualified for unemployment benefits. Thus, they no longer exist, so they cannot be unemployed. Simple.

Manufacturing’s transitions have as much to do with productivity as anything else. At least we are an entrepreneurial society. We’ll get out of this malaise because we’re smarter than them, goes the popular …  delusion.

Engineering and science leadership lead to economic progress. With that in mind, here are some of the headlining issues that we need to address:

Last year, the proportion of US-born college kids earning degrees in science and engineering was below 16 countries in Asia and Europe. Almost half of our beginning students never finish.

In engineering, non-US citizens make up more than 50% of graduate enrollment, and that’s after the crackdown on visa rules since 9/  11 started turning away many foreign students.

Foreign grads used to stay. No more. US companies increasingly hire foreign grads and send them home (read that: pay them much less than if they stayed here).

China, India, South Korea, and others fund engineering and science education massively. We scale back student loans and grants, and slash R&D funding. Since 1999, Europe has turned out more advanced science or engineering degrees than the US.

In 2004 American 15-year-olds ranked 24th among 29 countries in math skills, while our 8th graders ranked 15th in math and 9th in science. Over the next 20 years, the US can expect a massive retirement of engineers since most are over 40.

So, let’s review, folks. Today’s generation is dying or retiring. We’re producing too few replacements, frittering away our prospects, and not investing. We’ve making it more difficult to cherry-pick the world’s best talent, and we’re setting up shop overseas so that we do not have to pay them as much (which makes the shareholders fat and happy, but screws our country and our industry). And we’re smarter?

No. We’re in Neverland, moon-walking.

Thanks, Pal —Lockwood