America is at a turning point. The world has
changed dramatically in recent years, bringing
new challenges and opportunities to our
country. In Thomas L. Friedman's recent
book, The World Is Flat, he describes how
America's leadership is being challenged by a convergence of
factors that flatten the global playing field, eroding the economic
and technological high ground we enjoyed for much
of the 20th century. Meeting the challenges of the flat world
will be one of the central tests of American government in
the decades to come.
To succeed in the flat world, we must develop policies that
make America smarter, stronger, and safer. By giving individual
families and communities the tools to deal with the flat
world on their own terms, we can
build a country that is empowered,
not threatened, by globalization. As
we argue in a longer report, Winning
America's Future, it
is only by embracing the flat world
that our country will be able to take
full advantage of its benefits. For half a
century, America has been the world's
leader politically, economically, and
technologically. Many of us take our
success, and the benefits it entails, for
granted. However, America's ascent to
its current position in the world economy
was neither accidental nor
inevitable. Over the course of our history
we have been fortunate enough to
have leaders who took what Theodore
Roosevelt called "the long look
ahead." They made investments in our
nation's educational system, economic
infrastructure, and national security
that allowed us to grow, innovate, and
improve the lives of generations of
Americans. Now, a new generation
must take on new challenges so
America can lead and grow in the century
ahead.
We offer a series of policy proposals
in our full report that can be implemented
on the state and local level to
help America lead in the new century.
The ideas are divided into three sections:
education, economy, and security.
Some of these ideas have been in the
DLC playbook for some time and
have already proven successful in cities
and states across the country; others
are fresh from the drawing board,
waiting to be used. What they share is
a recognition that the world is changing
fast and that American students,
workers, and governments must work
hard to keep up.
In education, our proposals emphasize
raising the bar so our children
can compete and win. Among the key
proposals:
- Guarantee 14 years of schooling for
everyone, so that young Americans
can build the intellectual capital
they will need for a lifetime;
- Start a math and science initiative
modeled on the national response to
Sputnik in order to retain our competitive
advantage;
- Give children Life Investment
Funds for Education (LIFE)
accounts to help young people pay
for higher education and achieve
their dreams;
- Explore options for longer school
days and school years to catch up to
our Asian and European counterparts;
- Teach creativity in the curriculum,
because innovation is critical to creating
new products and building a
new economy;
- Focus on the teaching profession by
improving pay, reforming teacher
tenure, and installing measures of
accountability; and
- Introduce efficiency audits to ensure
that every dollar we spend on our
schools is being used effectively.
The new world we live in also
demands that America become
stronger and more flexible economically.
That means becoming more
competitive and helping workers succeed
in the new global marketplace.
Our economic proposals include:
- Create portable pensions and health
insurance so that as employees move
from job to job their health care
plans and pensions follow them;
- Form regional health care pools and
alliances so small businesses can
more easily offer coverage, and
employers of all sizes can drive down
health care costs while improving
quality;
- Spur private technology development
through innovative business
tax credits;
- Promote the use of broadband
Internet for more Americans;
- Expand Regional Skills Alliances to
help workers gain new skills that
will help them get jobs in burgeoning
local industries; and
- Cement the foundation of family
life that America was built on by
giving parents more time to care for
their children.
The same economic and technological
developments that present people
with new opportunities today also present
new security threats. On security
issues, our proposals include:
- Make America less dependent on
foreign countries for our energy
through smart investments in conservation,
renewables, and practical
incentives;
- Create local counterterrorism forces
and emergency service corps;
- Update communication systems so
first responders can coordinate
emergency response;
- Improve the security of identifications
cards;
- Update our food security practices
to prevent biological attack; and
- Support our troops by aiding military
families when troops are
abroad, and by helping military
men and women transition into
high-quality jobs when they leave
the military.
While the world has fundamentally
changed in recent years, our policies so
far have done too little to catch up.
America's education system was developed
at a time when a high-school
diploma and a strong work ethic were
enough to achieve a middle-class
lifestyle. America's safety net was created
at a time when companies provided
health insurance and pensions and
most people stayed with one company
for much of their working lives. The
challenges faced by Americans today
are entirely different, but rather than
stepping up to help people meet those
challenges, our policies have let the
risk and the burden fall on the shoulders
of individual workers and their
families.
The flat world requires that we
rethink what security means. Job security,
financial security, homeland security,
all of these phrases mean something
different now than they did 10
years ago. It is no longer enough just
to get a good job and hold onto it, or
to build a strong army and rest assured
that no one will attack us. Security in
the flat world does not mean keeping
things the same, but changing and
adapting better, faster, and more efficiently.
In the face of change and challenge,
there is a strong temptation to
step back and fight to keep things the
same. But America's success has always
sprung from its eager embrace of the
future and its confidence in things to
come. That forward-looking attitude
will serve us well in the flat world if we
match optimism with prudence and
prepare wisely for the future. The bottom
line is that change is coming
whether we like it or not. The only
question is whether we benefit from it,
or whether we fall behind and lose the
benefits of the flat world to nimbler
and hungrier countries.
While today's circumstances are
unique, this is not the first time
America has faced a crisis of competitiveness.
In 1957, the Soviet Union
launched the Sputnik satellite, catching
America off-guard and marking
the dawn of a new era of scientific
competition between the two superpowers.
For an entire generation of
Americans, the sound of Sputnik
beeping its way across the sky served as
a reminder that America's position at
the forefront of science, technology,
and economic growth was by no
means guaranteed.
Today America needs that same
determination with which we confronted
the Cold War as we confront the
challenges of a flat world. Regrettably,
foresight and leadership have been sorely
lacking at the national level in recent
years. Instead of investing in the future,
the federal government under
Republican leadership has instead chosen
to cut taxes and run up
the deficit, squandering
our country's future for
short-term political gain.
Across the country,
however, there are farsighted
state and local
leaders who are working to adapt government
to the flat world and give
their citizens a chance to succeed.
While the solutions to many of the
challenges we face must be found at a
national level, there is much that can
and should be done at the state and
local level. The purpose of our report
is to share state and local policy ideas
that can keep America at the forefront
of the world economy, even as it develops
in ways that will be difficult and
unexpected.
If innovation is the key for businesses
competing in a flat world, it is
also critical that government demonstrate
an entrepreneurial spirit as it
develops policies for the future.
Rather than sitting back and letting
change wash over our country and
communities, our leaders must be
entrepreneurs, looking for opportunities
to give our citizens the edge
they will need to succeed in the flat
world. Not everyone will agree that
all the policies proposed here are the
best approach to reach this goal, but
a vigorous debate can only help
improve our chances of finding the
right solutions.
What we're offering is more a menu
of options than it is an agenda for people
to sign onto. Every state and region
is different, and what is appropriate in
one state might not work in another.
Frankly, what we call for is experimentation.
Some of these policies will succeed;
others may need to be modified.
What we all agree on is the critical
importance of taking a fresh approach
to policymaking in the global era. We
also agree that the impasse on policy
progress at the federal level has been
devastating. On some issues, such as
energy independence, the best hope
ultimately is for a federal strategy. But
in the meantime, states and communities
throughout the country must do
what they can.
Even as we discuss what governments
can do to help our citizens thrive
in a flat world, we must also recognize
that America needs more than just
smart policies. We need to promote a
culture that values flexibility and creativity.
It is only through the daily lives
and personal decisions of millions of
Americans that we can achieve the goal
of competing successfully and building
a safe and prosperous future. Our political
leaders have a role to play not only
by their policymaking, but also by starting
a national conversation about the
challenges we face.
We hope to begin the conversation.
