An Alternate Witness

It was the description of the difference between American airports and public transportation, and that of the rest of the world, that first drew me into this article by recent Nobel Prize winner Thomas Friedman. My father likes to compare the Swiss train stations, which apologized profusely when a train was just 2 minutes behind schedule, with the traffic reports we listened to after we got back from Switzerland that habitually indicated 45 minute delays on the commuter trains into the US capital! Just this week I was fuming to someone about how luggage carts are free(or at most require a 25 cent refundable deposit) in every airport I've ever been to EXCEPT in the States, where they cost $3 and, in my experience, are often broken. (I had one in Philadelphia towards the end of my 24 hour trip home from Peace Corps that would only turn left, but there was no way I was paying another $3 for another cart!)

However, it should come as no surprise that the winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics had very cogent things to say about the future of the American economy.

Because of the financial crisis, Barack Obama has the bipartisan support to spend $1 trillion in stimulus. But we must make certain that every bailout dollar, which we’re borrowing from our kids’ future, is spent wisely.

It has to go into training teachers, educating scientists and engineers, paying for research and building the most productivity-enhancing infrastructure — without building white elephants. Generally, I’d like to see fewer government dollars shoveled out and more creative tax incentives to stimulate the private sector to catalyze new industries and new markets. If we allow this money to be spent on pork, it will be the end of us.

America still has the right stuff to thrive. We still have the most creative, diverse, innovative culture and open society — in a world where the ability to imagine and generate new ideas with speed and to implement them through global collaboration is the most important competitive advantage. China may have great airports, but last week it went back to censoring The New York Times and other Western news sites. Censorship restricts your people’s imaginations. That’s really, really dumb. And that’s why for all our missteps, the 21st century is still up for grabs.

John Kennedy led us on a journey to discover the moon. Obama needs to lead us on a journey to rediscover, rebuild and reinvent our own backyard.