foreign investors

During the 19^th century, America established herself as a bastion of innovation, providing useful inventions for the entire world. This surge of creativity continued through the 20^th century, making life easier for everyone in modernized countries. Today, however, we find that while our nation is still spending a great deal of resources on research and development, a decreasing number of our findings are beneficial to emerging countries. While there are obvious exceptions such as AIDS vaccine research and water treatment technologies, many new patents are furthering the gap between first- and third-world countries. Scientists are working on developing CAT7 cable for 10Gbps transmissions over distances greater than 70 meters although much of the planet is still without even the most basic internet access. With this in mind, it is no difficult to understand why we are losing market share. We have begun to focus so much on convenience and ease-of-use, areas of expertise dominated by other countries with much more experience than us. If we wish to re-claim our place in the global marketplace, we need to focus on the billions of people who aren’t at all concerned with download speeds or feature lists. During the current recession, foreign nations are taking advantage of the opportunity to invest in American ingenuity - they know that we’ll eventually fight our way back to the top, and they want to make sure to get a piece of the action when we do. The real question is: how long will it take us before we realize we’re headed in the wrong direction?