14 DAY TRIAL // President Barack Obama reasserted his trust in science as the only means of averting future economic crises in his radio address on Saturday, saying that long-term investments in research were the only things that could ensure a sustainable and strong economy. Results will not be visible right away, and the fact that average citizens, and indeed investors too, want to see immediate results and returns for their money only hinders innovation. Some important research projects get little funding precisely because they could take ten to 20 years to complete, and few people are willing to take that investment risk upon themselves.
“We need to recapture the spirit of innovation that has always moved America forward. That means once again having the best-educated, highest skilled workforce in the world. That means a health care system that makes it possible for entrepreneurs to innovate and businesses to compete without being saddled with skyrocketing insurance costs,” Obama said on his radio address.
“That means leading the world in building a new clean energy economy with the potential to unleash a wave of innovation – and economic growth – while ending our dependence on foreign oil. And that means investing in the research and development that will produce the technologies of the future – which in turn will help create the industries and jobs of the future,” the President added. He also revealed that the US needed “a new foundation strong enough to withstand future economic storms and support lasting prosperity,” LiveScience reports.
Throughout the country, and around the world, analysts and other experts draw attention to the fact that the US, while retaining its role as the strongest military and economic power in the world, is slowly losing its first position in science and research. Its strategy of attracting foreign, highly specialized workforce to work in research laboratories and national agencies means that fewer American experts are formed, trained and hired. Countries such as China and India are slowly moving towards the top, providing large numbers of incredibly well trained experts in various fields every year.
Many analysts blame this shift in leadership on the “morality-based politics” employed by the former Republican administration, led by George Bush. In an attempt to keep the nation on its “right, religious track,” the former President has reduced or ceased funding for a large number of scientific fields such as embryonic stem cell. And with lobbyists for extreme-right religious groups dictating policies in Washington, there is little chance of that situation recovering. Over the past eight years, America has been led by a group of people who influenced science with politics, which caused inestimable damage.
“In so many foreign policy issues today, there is a scientific or technical element of some kind – whether it is global health, proliferation of nuclear weapons, the environment, global warming, or many other issues. Science is only one element of any complex policy decision, but I strongly believe that a decision made in awareness of the relevant scientific facts will turn out to be better than one which ignores them,” the Director of the Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy, Norman Neureiter, shared.