America's Self-Imposed Economic Limitations
The United States stands proudly and vocally on its reputation as the greatest economic force in the world. Particularly following World War II and throughout the protracted conflict that was the Cold War, the United States asserted its capitalist system as one that would ultimately drive global economic growth and progress. Yet, today, we find the United States at something of an impasse. In the throes of a seemingly endless recession and constantly bombarded with ominous predictions about the unsustainable nature of the American way of life, we must confront the reality that we may have reached the limits of our growth potential. Both because of America's poor prioritization of social needs and its global orientation with respect to free trade, the nation is facing a crisis of stagnancy that may only get worse with time.
America's domestic policies are very much to blame for certain disinclinations in the U.S. population. Particularly, there has been...
To this point, the article by Bennett (2012) identifies our educational failures as a major limiting factor in our collective potential. According to Bennett, "today, American students score 23rd in math and 31st in science when compared with 65 other top industrial countries. And yet a recent study by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology found, 'economic forecasts point to a need for producing, over the next decade, approximately 1 million more college graduates in STEM fields than expected under current assumptions.'" (Bennett, p. 1)
According to these troubling findings, our educational standards have fallen well below those of not just our closest allies and competitors on the global market but even behind a number of developing nations. This denotes that the leaders…
