How Do You Keep Technology Once You Develop It?

Pundit Fareed Zakaria (photo above), whom I respect a lot, lists massive investment in research as one way to kick-start a vigorous American recovery. He is not alone. Several smart people have proposed this kind of economic strategy – including President Obama.

And if you’ve been reading my blogs, you know I have been one of the most persistent advocates for research investment, especially in “green” technology.

It was America’s  hi-tech know-how that powered the Nineties boom. But it didn’t take long for that technology to cross the ocean and take the boom with it.

The big corporations are all global now, and they naturally export American-developed technology to their far-flung operations.

So I am left with a question for which I have no answer: How do you keep technology at home once you develop it?

For when America exports its technology, jobs go with it. And not just existing jobs but the capacity for creating future jobs.

I suppose the government could devise some regulatory mechanism to combat this, but I have seen no political will to do this so far.

I wonder if the folks who inflicted globalism on America realized how devastating the implications would be?

But that genie is out of the bottle now. As they say in Jamaica, wa-fe-do?

Maybe you can figure it out. Come on, let’s hear your ideas.

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