The U. S. Must Step Up and Establish an Infrastructure for Jobs of the Future: U. S. Department of Applied Technology

Franklin, NC -- (ReleaseWire) -- 02/22/2010 -- Today the world is engaged in a race for leadership in applied technology and jobs. Recently a column in the Franklin Press in Franklin, North Carolina proposed the establishment of a U. S. Department of Applied Technology to help the United States maintain global leadership in applied technology and to establish a framework for the creation of new jobs. Technological supremacy has in the past led us to become the strongest economy in the world and new technology creates new jobs. Today, China is assuming leadership in manufacturing and holds a lot of our debt. In the face of global competition our race for technological and employment supremacy will determine our fate as a global economy. Current economic data indicates we need to establish a U. S. Department of Applied Technology to maintain our leadership in an extremely competitive global environment.

What has happened to our economy and jobs? We do not agree with technicians that a few modifications and regulations of banking investments will fix the problem. Due to outsourcing, our jobs and wealth are leaving our country at an accelerating rate. T. Boone Pickens points out that over $475 billion dollars leave our country each year for foreign oil. WashTech, which represents technical workers, estimates that we have outsourced over 500,000 technical and service jobs to other countries. The Alliance for Manufacturing estimates that we have lost 5 million manufacturing jobs, since 2000. So far in 2010, alone, we have a trade deficit of over 40 billion dollars and our national debt has climbed to over $12 trillion.

Today the world is engaged in a race for technological leadership. Let’s take a look at some commonalities of successful job creation programs of our past. In the 19th century railroad building programs were cooperative programs between government and business. They provided a framework for commerce and employment, as they connected our continent. The Morrill Acts of the 19thcentury helped established land-grant colleges and universities to bring in the latest technology in engineering and agriculture to our economy. Rural electrification programs of the 1930’s brought electricity to less populated areas and with it employment.

Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway Program created jobs as it worked with contractors to build highways and create modern transportation systems. The internet, which owes its origin to the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) along with private corporations like Microsoft and Netscape, created millions of jobs and provided an infrastructure for commerce and free enterprise. The commonality of these programs is that they were based on new applied technologies, they formed infrastructures and foundations to create and build jobs, and they involved government and business working together in a free enterprise system.

As we try to deal with problems of outsourcing our debt, outsourcing our jobs, outsourcing our wealth and trade imbalances; do we need a U. S. Department of Applied Technology? Our history shows that we have a tradition of building a foundation for top national priorities. Our government’s spending is extensive and yet with all this spending, we lack vital infrastructure to turn our economy around and begin building wealth and jobs for our nation.

In the past our government created cooperative free enterprise infrastructures to work with business to build jobs through applied technologies. Higher paying jobs come from new technologies and technologies are expensive and change rapidly. A Department of Applied Technology would continually scan the globe for new technologies and policies to maintain applied technology supremacy. A U. S. Department of Applied Technology could work with companies willing to build jobs in the Unites States, through free enterprise employment in our country. Such an agency could back loans from private banks in applied technologies to create jobs and maintain technological leadership for our nation and create new priorities for global leadership at the highest levels of our government. Let’s learn from our past and put a foundation or infrastructure under our job building priorities.

We need to remain a nation of opportunity, a nation of free enterprise, a nation of full employment, a nation maintaining wealth, a nation able to balance trade deficits and national debts, and especially a nation with a bright future for our children.

Gordon Mercer is international president of Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society, professor of Political Science, and a columnist. Marcia Mercer is a writer and columnist. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of other organizations. Call 828-369-2693 for additional information or go to http://www.notesonquotes.com to review the published column on the proposal for a U. S. Department of Applied Technology.