Quotes, The World is Flat (2005), Tom Friedman As I started researching this book, I felt at times like I was in a Twilight ZonesegmentI would inter!iew "#$s and technologists from ma%or com&anies, both American'based and foreign, and thewould describe in their own was what I came to call the tri&le con!ergenceut*most of them weren+t telling the &ublic or the &oliticiansThewere either too distracted, too focu sed on their own businesses, or too afraidIt was like t hewere all &od &eo&le,- li!ing in a &arallel uni!erse, who were in on the big secret.es, theall knew the secret/but nobody wanted to tell the kids. The members of the first generation are nose'to'the'grindstone inno!atorsthe second generation holds it all togetherthen their kids come along and get fat, dumb, and la1and slowlsuander it allAmerican societstart ed to coast in t he 3440s, when our third &ostwar generation came of age[W]e Americans, individually and collectively, have not been doing all these things that we should be doing and [ignoring] what will happen down the road if we don’t change course. The truth is we are in a crisis now, but it is a crisis that is unfolding !erslowland !eruietl It is a uiet crisis ,- e&lained 6hir leAnn 7ackson, the 2008 &resi dent of the Ame ric an Ass oci ati on for the Ad!a ncement of 6ci ence and &re si dent of 9ensse lae r :olt echnic Institut e since 3444And this quiet crisis involves the steady erosion of Ame rica ’s scie nti fic and engine erin g base , whic h has always bee n the sou rce of American innovation and our rising standard of living. We don’t have any time to waste in addressing the “dirty little secretsof our education system. The &erfect storm 6hirleAnn 7ackson is warning about could best be described as the confluence of three ga&s that ha!e been slowlemerging to sa& America+s &rowess in science, math, and engineeringTheare the numbers ga&, the ambi tion ga&, and the education ga&;The numbers ga& is r elated to the engineers and scienti sts educated in the 50s and <0s reaching retirement not being re&laced bcurrent numbers of graduatesThe ambition ga& is related to the e&erience that com&anies in #uro&e and America find that not onlare the "hinese and Indian engineers less e&ensi!e to hire, theare far more &roducti!e and moti!atedThe education ga& is related to the fact that our ='32 kids are not being educated to a le!el that allows com&etition with their foreign &eers, es&in math and science and thus are not &re&ared for science or engineering curricula in collegeThe dirtlittle secret is that not onlis ;outsourcing> chea&er and efficient,- the American "#$ of a ?ondon'headuartered multinational told me, but the ualitand &roducti!it;boost> is huge- “When you thin! it only about wages,he added, “you can still !eep your dignity, but the fact that they wor! better is awful.
