Keeping America competitive globally

When did we decide it was OK to settle for good enough? That's the sense of resignation Thomas Friedman referred to in his speech at the National Governors' Association in Salt Lake City last month. People have gotten used to "this is just the way things go, and we don't expect anything different."

On a recent trip to China, he noted that the Chinese had built a convention center in eight months, whereas when he returned to Bethesda, Md, he noted that it had taken over six months for Americans to repair a subway escalator. What he found disturbing was a news item about the long waiting lines at the subway station and that people "have sort of gotten used to it."

Friedman was invited to speak to the governors on the challenge America faces, and the role of education in U.S. competitiveness. His observations are sobering, yet optimistic. Referring to his upcoming book, "That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back," he identified two challenges that are interrelated: how to adapt to the IT revolution and globalization.

He said we live in a "hyper flat world" were everyone is connected and interdependent. Routine jobs that can be automated, outsourced or digitized are gone forever, though our schools are still preparing kids for those $12 per hour jobs.

The greatest peril is the loss of the American dream, Friedman believes, and we are watching it fall in a slow decline; that this generation will not be better off than their parents. The American dream has always been the vital source of our economy and our status in the world. For the first time, this generation of young adults is projected to have a lower education attainment rate than their parents; we have resigned ourselves to that's how things are — that America's better days are over and its China's turn to lead. Our kids will not be living in a different America, rather a different world.

If America is to be competitive, it must realize being average is no longer acceptable. Education in America must bring the bottom group to average and the average must be so much higher. The conversation should be about understanding how the world has changed.

We have allowed our education system to "grow without a plan," he said, and now we must cut, but we " … cannot cut without a plan, as that is scary, you might cut an artery." America's dream is at risk if it doesn't reinvent itself to compete globally. In the flat world, the commodity necessary to compete is knowledge, creativity and innovation. All workers must be ready to invent, adapt and reinvent jobs along the way.