Invent, Invent, Invent

New York Times Op-Ed Contributor Thomas Friedman recently wrote an article titled "Invent, Invent, Invent" which focuses on ways for America to get out of its current economic crisis. The former chairman of Intel, Craig Barrett, suggested that any American teen who wanted to get a driver's license must finish high school. The country needs to be filled with smart and innovative people who can find new, cheaper ways to do things. Recessions are a time when new companies form and the good companies separate themselves from the bad companies. Friedman feels that the country that uses this crisis to make its population smarter and more innovative is the one that will not only survive but thrive down the road. With the necessary tools and research, we can invent our way back to prosperity. According to Friedman, America has the best assets to be taking advantage of and we should be pressing those advantages to the max right now.

In his article, Friedman compares America to Russia and China. The Chinese government has recently began to censor the Internet and limit what people can view. The filter is used to block politics and other things that restrict the ability to imagine and innovate. This is telling the Chinese youth that they must go abroad to explore. In Russia, oil at $35 a barrel forces the country to diversify its economy but oil at $70 a barrel this change comes from an enormous act of "political will". In these times in America, we should be looking for anyone willing to help our country in this difficult time and anyone willing to create jobs. We need to do all we can now to get more brains connected to more capital in order to spawn more new companies faster. As Jeff Immelt put it,"this moment is an opportunity to turn financial adversity into national advantage, to launch innovations of lasting value to our country."