Sputnik was a remarkable achievement. Math and science education in the US changed in order to provide the scientists to get us to the moon. More importantly the Advanced Research Projects Agency was formed in direct response to sputnik. ARPA (eventually renamed DARPA) funded many research projects, but most importantly computer and digital communications research. US computers were lighter and more powerful than any other computers in the world. This enabled the US to launch people into space with smaller rockets than the USSR. The ARPA net evolved into the internet.
US technology took off, but US industry fought change hand and foot. Nothing captures this refusal better than the entertainment industry. At the time of sputnik the vast majority of entertainment systems sold in the US were manufactured by US companies located in the US. All of the electronics were made from tubes. Televisions, radios, amplifiers, . . . were made from tubes and the companies refused to move to transistors. RCA owned the patents on the color technology for color television sets and made tons of money off the patents alone.
However, Japan chose to use transistors. They started with cheap tinny transistor radios that fit in your pocket. Slowly, but certainly Japan started to manufacture ever higher quality electronic entertainment equipment out of transistors. The equipment lasted forever without repair and had virtually the same quality as the best tube equipment. (There are some who claim that tube amplifiers are better than transistor amplifiers, but I do not believe them.) Today very little electronic entertainment products are manufactured in the US.
The president spoke of competitiveness. The only way to be competitive is to change when the technology changes. Companies resist such change. Transportation companies want to continue to ship by truck even if rail saves money and makes the country more competitive. Equipment manufacturing companies want to manufacture the same old equipment, be it cars or appliances. The same old same old is the problem. Lack of adaptation is the issue.
Should the government lead the way? Of course the government should. The government led the way into space, digital communications, and computers. To think the government should suddenly stop is nonsense. Yet stopping the government is what republicans want. Why? Well the answer lies in the very definition of conservatism, disposition in politics to preserve what is established. Republicans do not want change, even if change is necessary and happens anyway.
The president failed with the opportunity to present a vision for change. He ran as the candidate of change you can believe in. He failed as president to deliver on that promise. The Tea Party is wants (to be crude) to return to
In days of old when knights were bold
and toilets weren't invented,
they laid their load upon the road
and walked away contented !
And that my friends is precisely what conservatives want. The hell with sewer systems when you can leave your load in the middle of the road.
So Obama's speech looks good compared to anything offered as counterpoint. But, the speech was still a failure.
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