That Used to be Us - Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum

Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum's book,  That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back delivers a passionate plea for American's to rediscover the things that made our country successful.

The authors attribute five pillars for the success of America:

1. Excellent Education - Good teachers, administrators and motivated students
2. Infrastructure - Bridges, highways, transportation
3. Immigration - attract  and keep the best minds from around the world
4. Fair laws regulating capital formation
5. Government funded research

During the past 20 years America has fallen behind in each one of these areas.  Tom notes that China built a large state of the art conference center in less time than it took Washington DC to repair a subway escalator.

The authors criticize both Republicans and Democrats for not facing problems as serious adults.  Republicans ignore the reality of math.  Tax cuts without corresponding spending cuts lead to deficits.  Democrats fail to understand the need to reduce benefits to reign in the cost of pension plans and entitlement spending.

They strongly advocate radically centrists policy's championed by a third party candidate.  They point to Ross Perot's passion - deficit reduction which pushed our country towards getting a balanced budget at the end of the Clinton Administration.  Theodore Roosevelts, Bull Moose/Progressive Party reforms:  End to child labor, worker safety, 8 hour work day, open primaries for state and national offices.

They strongly discourage students from taking classes in law and finance and propose a 15,000 surcharge for students pursuing these fields.  The money would be used to provide support to students pursing STEM fields.  The US wastes brain power on more clever methods of wealth creation through creative financial instruments. 

Since this book was published Congress is moving in the right direction on student visa reform.  A bill would raise the number of H1-B visas from 65,000 to between 115,000 and 195,000 depending on demand.  I've had the privilege to mentor three foreign graduate students.  Two of them now have employment in the US.  The US is a much better place because we have gained their intellectual capital.  Foreign born inventors are responsible for a significant majority of patents at the top ten patent Universities in the US according to a June 2012 report from Partnership for a New American Economy.

    That Used to be Us - 39 minutes - IBM think forum

David Frost interviews Thomas Friedman - 6 min.