Focusing on the Future
As great as all that is, however, other countries today seem better able than we to act on the recognition that the future belongs to those educated in the hard sciences and technologies, those who understand that intellectual capital will make up the creative infrastructure of tomorrow just as highways, railroads, and canals did yesterday. We know that growth is tied to innovative talent, but America's scientific and technical leadership is waning just as India, China, Canada, and Australia are investing more in these areas. As if to spite ourselves, we are making matters worse by turning foreign talent away from our shores. Domestic political pressure has been allowed to keep out thousands of skilled professionals formerly allowed to work here under H-1B visas, the number of which has been cut by two thirds in recent years. Americans met and conquered enormous challenges in the past, and we can do so again in the future, but we must keep our doors--and minds--open to the contributions new arrivals here can make.
The United States was the leader of the 20th century. It could and should be the leader of the 21st century. But this will require a kind of farsighted leadership that reconfigures the balance between America's longer-term interest and short-term partisan politics.
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