What happened to American innovation and creativity?

Question

We are finding ourselves lagging behind the rest of the world. And, our government has us stalled in the sands of Iraq which is sucking our resources and treasury. Has America lost it's edge when it comes to being the forerunners of innovation, problem solving and progress in the world. Are we stuck in the crude fossilized age of the 1950's technologies and mentality because of our overwhelming dependence on corporate American interests and oil interests which are counterproductive to advancing new energy solutions? Is it too late for America?
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jul2007/gb20070725_703410.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_global+business
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/41

Has American business been too influential on our Government. And, have they been too lazy to change, investing more in the ego of vanity autos rather than looking at the practical economics that have been changing and needs of the consumer?

Great article on PHEVs:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0922/p12s01-sten.html

Answer 1

I'll get 10,000 thumbs down for this I'm sure, but here it is.

We don't have a free market anymore. We have a system where certain corporations buy favors from the government in the form of donations. They are repaid by various unconstitutional spending plans, usually sold under the guise of national security or appealing to the American sense of charity and compassion for the poor/children/elderly.

Before 1913 there were some monopolies and corporate abuses, but it was actually the founding of the modern federal government that allowed them to take societal control to a whole new level. It was bad enough when oil monopolies caused prices to go up, but now with a powerful federal government they can control, the monopoly can take us to war and put it on the taxpayer's credit card.

As bad as any corporation is, there's nothing worse than a corporation backed by tax collectors, prisons, an army, and nuclear weapons.

If a company wants to sell more drugs, it puts ads on TV. If a government wants to sell more drugs, they raise taxes and call it "universal healthcare."

If a company wants more oil, they can go drill in the ground and find it. If a government wants more oil, they can go declare war and take it.

If you don't pay your corporate bills, you go to the debt collector. If you don't pay your taxes, you go to jail.

Answer 2

Well, USA is still at the top at the moment, but your schools are going downhill, since the end of the cold war with USSR! At that time everything was focused at winning, but now, this focus is more into fashion than anything usefull anymore! Your teachers are fleeing the country, and are going to China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and India, while we remain with the lower end in term of schooling quality! Even Harvard has troubles, and South Korean schools are getting so hot, than less and less expat students are coming to the US to learn technical stuff... They mostly come here to get connections in the biz... So America is becoming a biz center yes, but for the rest, we are getting lazy and will get it back behind the head if we continue to be complacent like this too long!!

Answer 3

Creativity in music will always be dead as long as corporate executives pour out the money and make the deals that practically bind people for their whole careers. They say money talks and it's absolutely true except it talks like a ghost; it can make you do anything and do things you otherwise wouldn't want to do. In the case of American Idol record company execs. are paying Fox to broadcast what could be their up-and-coming big-name tour headliner and that will get them the money that they want. It's more or less a big publicity stunt for them to get young brainwashed tweens to say "I lyked her, that was really good" and then they'll get into them and when they get a big deal with a record company in comes the money for the deal makers and the artist barely even sees 5% of that. Even though they say transactions like these don't happen I can guarentee you they do, I've seen them happen and I've seen too many agreements like these as I've ever seen. If you take money out of the equation music will have a lot more freedom.

Answer 4

We are number one

DEFINITION: the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year

nomy Statistics > Statistics > GDP > Nominal (Latest available) by country
Rank Countries
Amount (top to bottom)

#1 United States:
$11,667,515,000,000.00
#2 Japan:
$4,623,398,000,000.00
#3 Germany:
$2,714,418,000,000.00
#4 United Kingdom:
$2,140,898,000,000.00
#5 France:
$2,002,582,000,000.00
#6 Italy:
$1,672,302,000,000.00
#7 China:
$1,649,329,000,000.00
#8 Spain:
$991,442,000,000.00
#9 Canada:
$979,764,000,000.00
#10 India:
$691,876,000,000.00
#11 Korea, South:
$679,674,000,000.00
#12 Mexico:
$676,497,000,000.00
#13 Australia:
$631,256,000,000.00
#14 Brazil:
$604,855,000,000.00
#15 Russia:
$582,395,000,000.00
#16 Netherlands:
$577,260,000,000.00
#17 Switzerland:
$359,465,000,000.00
#18 Belgium:
$349,830,000,000.00
#19 Sweden:
$346,404,000,000.00
#20 Turkey:
$301,950,000,000.00
#21 Austria:
$290,109,000,000.00

Answer 5

That's what you get when you have ancient stuffed shirts and legacy congressmen... we're still stuck in a 1950's mentality, and corporate America is infiltrating through the back door.

Complacency and ignorance are deadly.

Answer 6

I think you already answered your own question. I feel the same way about this issue as well; the United States needs to refocus its emphasis on funding for our domestic issues. I've been to a lot of countries and from what I've seen, they (the developed world) have a much more enjoyable standard of living compared to here. I don't like how middle-class America needs to worry about so much when middle-class Europe doesn't, and I sincerely hope that the party who takes over fixes these problems.

Answer 7

We would rather turn out lawyers and MBA's (you know, the degree program where over 70% admit to cheating? the ones running our corporations?) than engineers, physicist, scientist, and so on. Why is that? Is it because with the first two mentioned, the potential to B.S. your way in to big money is far greater where as you have to know the technical stuff? Don't know, but it needs to change.

Answer 8

I feel that we are still cranking out good ideas and inventions, I think that maybe alot of good inventors might get spooked by all the red tape involved or afraid someone will rip them off of their ideas could be one issue. But definetely, the U.S. is still at the top of our game, we are always looking for a better way to do it and we do.

Answer 9

Quite simply corporate welfare is to blame. Just giving money to corporations to build something that the military can use, limits in scope the things we can do with technology, I mean after all there is a limited way to blow things up.

Answer 10

A group of us were sitting around and discussing this very subject over the weekend. Seems they're more interested in Viagra and SUVs than anything truly substantial. Where are our great minds and innovators?