Wisdom from Tony Tee

Tony Tee is an Asian friend of my brother Vince. He waxes eloquent on current events and foreign affairs. He is an engineer, not a diplomat or foreign service agent. Still, working in electrical engineering at Intel, he travels the world and observes what is going on globally. At the New Year's Eve party at Vince's house, he opined that the United States is on the fast track to becoming a third world country. We have vast income inequity between rich and poor. We lack a manufacturing base. All that needs to happen now is for China and India to develop large middle classes who will start buying their own goods. Once they do, these countries will not care whether or not they export anything to us. Given our present economic condition, it remains to be seen whether we will have the means to keep importing from these countries. If we do not, we may become like Nicaragua or El Salvador with their tiny aristocratic elites and vast masses of the poor. Already leading CIA experts say that North American influence in the world is on the wane and will be significantly reduced by 2025.

What will save us from becoming marginalized, Tony said, is innovation. If we become pioneers in biotechnology, nanotechnology (the control of matter on an atomic or molecular scale), robotics and such, we have a chance to remain a major player. Fortunately we have excellent universities all over the country that are working to make this happen. If I were in the Department of Education I would be pushing for major changes in math and science education to prepare future innovators.

This country has a long history of dealing with great challenges. If the USA can get out of its own way and encourage ethical invention and innovation, it can remain a key performer on the global stage for years to come. Many have said in the past that one major event or another would finish us. Nothing has done it yet. While I take seriously what Tony Tee says, I also concur with what a news pundit said years ago. "It is amazing how long this country has been going to hell without ever getting there."