A Sunny Solution to Everything

Thomas Friedman's opinion today in the New York Times is everything I want to say on this blog, albeit written much better. He states:

"...I am more convinced than ever that when historians look back at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, they will say that the most important thing to happen was not the Great Recession, but China’s Green Leap Forward. The Beijing leadership clearly understands that the E.T. — Energy Technology — revolution is both a necessity and an opportunity, and they do not intend to miss it.

We, by contrast, intend to fix Afghanistan. Have a nice day."

Many people in the United States want our government focused on one task, a solution to fix our economy and put people back to work - and rightfully so. As someone who studied more Darwin than Keynes in college, I admit that my few hours listening to Bloomberg Radio in no way make me an economics expert. But here is what I know: We cannot simply save ourselves out of a recession. We must spend money. And if we are to spend our way out of this, then let us spend money on solutions that create real jobs. The Chinese understand this. Why don't we? There should be no reason why we are not the world leaders in wind, solar, nuclear, and alternative energy technologies.

Here are some difficult facts to swallow: In the 1970's our country produced nearly 20 million new jobs. In the 1980's our country produced nearly 20 million new jobs. In the 1990's, you guessed it, our country produced nearly 20 million new jobs. The 2000's? Less than 500,000 new jobs were produced between 2000 and 2010. Moreover, many of the jobs produced in the last ten years were in the service industry, Starbucks and Walmart jobs. These jobs are unsustainable without a manufacturing foundation to our economy. With our nation's population increasing, this trend is troubling.

My humble opinion: our government resources must be placed in the hands of our scientists. Like the Apollo missions in the 1960's, a program that spun off millions of new jobs, the green revolution has the power to change the world, and the U.S. for the better. It will ideally accomplish the ultimate trifecta, create new jobs, decrease our dependence on world oil, and make the Earth a cleaner place to live. Moreover, it can provide incentive to our youth to focus their education into growing fields of study that our country so desperately needs - science, math, and engineering.

Can it really be as simple as "science is the answer"? I hope so. What can I say, I'm an optimist. I prefer kayaking, not dumping tea, in our waterways.