Competing in a flat world by ZDNet's Dan Farber -- ?We a?re creating a country where people outsource their intellect to other countries, expecting the Indians, for example, to do all hard work while they sit at home and watch TV on broadband.? That'?s what Esther Dyson, CNET's Release 1.0 editor, had to say about the U.S. falling behind other countries in innovation. She cited inventor Dean Kamen[...]
[...]the National Academy of Sciences that outlines the issues and offers some solutions. Following are highlights from the report that illustrate the depth of the problem.
For the cost of one chemist or one engineer in the United States, a company can hire about five chemists in China or 11 engineers in India.
Last year chemical companies shuttered 70 facilities in the United States and have tagged 40 more for closure. Of 120 chemical plants being built around the world with price tags of $1 billion or more, one is in the United States and 50 are in China.
U.S. 12th-graders recently performed below the international average for 21 countries on a test of general knowledge in mathematics and science. In addition, an advanced mathematics assessment was administered to students in 15 other countries who were taking or had taken advanced math courses, and to U.S. students who were taking or had taken pre-calculus, calculus, or Advanced Placement calculus. Eleven countries outperformed the United States, and four scored similarly. None scored significantly below the United States.
In 1999 only 41 percent of U.S. eighth-graders had a math teacher who had majored in mathematics at the undergraduate or graduate level or studied the subject for teacher certification Â? a figure that was considerably lower than the international average of 71 percent.
Last year more than 600,000 engineers graduated from institutions of higher education in China. In India, the figure was 350,000. In America, it was about 70,000.
In 2001 U.S. industry spent more on tort litigation than on research and development.
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