Will Science Make the Cut?

This is all going to depend on if/when the Chinese decide to stop loaning us money.

Of course if we continue to print money to the point that hyper-inflation makes the dollar worthless, any funding for science with worthless currency will mean/accomplish nothing as well.

This cultural swift is a welcome sign- an exemplary gesture for the rest of the world.

Supremacy in its real meaning, never means Power to control and threaten, but the power to lead the rest of the world in tune with ethical values.

Material supremacy is the capacity to take care of the weaker and not over enriching oneself, it is not a show game.

Through out history the greatest warriors for power and conquering the world had ended in frustration, great loss of lives,shame- Two world wars initiators,King Asoka,Alexander the great and many more.

The main causes bothering the whole of humanity are,

* comparing attitudes with statistical values for Economy, GDP,Per Capita income, Standards of living etc

* The most influential factor is the lack of initiatives to share and distribute essential resources of the planet- water, natural resources, minerals, knowledge.

*Lack of positive use of funds and initiative efforts for rectification of the weaker than spending for power politics.

* Lack of penetration of ethical values of education, which is currently confined to materialism.

*Lack of empathy in the international conflicting factions, mislead missions, hero worshipping etc.

* lack of contentment on resources, land territories, our confinement to racial conceptions.

* Feeling of security under arms and military power

Humanity as a superior specie in nature had all the capabilities to ponder a smooth life on the planet, just by grooming and practising their ethical and spiritual values in a right directions.

Mother nature demonstrates this openness, freedom,nakedness, accessibility to her resources to all species free of costs. But we humans, out of our possessive stand are complicating our lives and others.

It is high time real leaders take up positive steps in this direction.

Arms abolishment, positive use of Science and Technology are welcome signs for the whole of humanity.

The words of Rabindranath Tagore's GEETANJALI should emancipate into reality, the right pathway of our meaningful tenure as humans on this unique and wonder planet earth.

Yes we can "out-build and out-innovate, and out-educate". That really isn't the problem. We have a cost/jobs problem. We have more layers of cost than any of our competition. We've only managed to out pace them with productivity. No country in the world has more lawyers per capita than us. They have to sue or create legal hurdles for all of us in order to make their dime. What gets me more than anything is we have factories of knowledge in our labs, garages and universities. We come up with amazing things all the time. And just when we can reap the fruit of all the time, energy, and funding that went into this innovation it's shipped overseas and manufactured or consumed elsewhere. It's crazy when you see millions of dollars spent here on improving a process. Once perfected it doesn't end up creating a job here. A plant overseas with non-American workers see the benefit. It's crazy and wasteful. We need to keep innovating but we also have to capitalize on our efforts far better than we have been.

Everyone wants a rich life, that's understandable. When you have situations in WI and here in California where a handful of people drive a State to the brink of financial collapse you have a system that's out of control. If you drive your prices up high enough you price yourself right out! When a worker here needs $1,000 a month minimum to put a roof over their head and he's competing for a job with a competitor who spends $600 you have an imbalance. Our living costs are too high. You can't have $100,000 dollar a year tastes on a $60,000 salary without it all imploding at some point. We're currently at that point.

Never in history have people been able to "debt themselves to prosperity". It seems a few academics in Washington are trying to prove this theory wrong.

Sadly, we won't be able to continue to "out-build and out-innovate" until we do "out educate", and we will never "out-educate" until we start treating public school teachers with the level of respect the vast majority of them deserve.

How can we expect students to RESPECT teachers enough to LEARN from them when our leaders and other loud voices in our society treat them as they do? How can we expect students to believe education is as important as we SAY it is when public education is the first and deepest place we cut budgets when money gets tight? When enough Americans decided teachers are not important enough to pay well and public schools are not important enough to fund well that it became public policy we started to lose any superiority we had in education.

As the spouse of a middle school teacher I am intimately familiar with the situation of which I speak (rant). The problem manifests in more than just a lack of resources, good teachers can overcome that, but when parents show lack of respect directly to teachers in front of their children they undermine everything the teacher is working to achieve.

Does "respect" mean paying teachers more money? I didn't catch a solution in your post.