ventions that spurred our economic growth. It seems only logical to us that this will continue to be the case. We think that new inventions and technologies will continue to spur an ever-expanding economy. We turn a blind eye to the fact that many of the technologies that we claim expanded our economy had little effect on other countries. Railroads that are said to have spurred economic growth in America were used the world over. They did not have the same economic impact on other countries as America. It may be that the benefits of future technological developments may pass us by.Maintaining marketplace superiority has also become increasingly difficult. An advanced computer system can just as easily be manufactured in India as it can in America and increasingly the worker needed to develop and manufacture it there is available locally. The volume of new patents registered by citizens and institutions of other nations is now almost equal to our own. The American share of high technology export market has fallen from 40 to 36 percent. All of this along with the fact that the profit margin in the manufacturing sector continues to fall, makes the likelihood of some new technology restoring the good old days to America very small.American business has also held the idea that if only we can become more efficient we can maintain and or restore our superiority on the world stage. This has not been the case. All that really has developed is a decline in profit margins, which allows less money for future research and development of new products. Streamlining production has also reduced work forces and resulted in a general decline in average wages. This has a snowball effect on the economy by having less money available for spending by consumers.Education has also been hard hit over the last two decades. We spend less of a percentage of our earnings on education than we did before 1971. People no longer go to college in order to ...
