Having just returned from a trip to Beijing, I came across an op-ed yesterday that I found particularly interesting. It discussed the “moon shots” of China versus those of the United States. Of particular interest:
China is doing moon shots. Yes, that’s plural. When I say “moon shots” I mean big, multibillion-dollar, 25-year-horizon, game-changing investments. China has at least four going now: one is building a network of ultramodern airports; another is building a web of high-speed trains connecting major cities; a third is in bioscience, where the Beijing Genomics Institute this year ordered 128 DNA sequencers — from America — giving China the largest number in the world in one institute to launch its own stem cell/genetic engineering industry; and, finally, Beijing just announced that it was providing $15 billion in seed money for the country’s leading auto and battery companies to create an electric car industry, starting in 20 pilot cities. In essence, China Inc. just named its dream team of 16-state-owned enterprises to move China off oil and into the next industrial growth engine: electric cars.
Not to worry. America today also has its own multibillion-dollar, 25-year-horizon, game-changing moon shot: fixing Afghanistan.
Outside of the fact that it came from the NYT (apologies), and was more a commentary on Afghanistan than anything else, I found his statement about moon shots quite intriguing. And quite disturbing.
Regretfully I submit that what Beijing has that the United States, and perhaps Virginia, does not, is two things – patience and vision.
When I was a child I grew up learning that Gen Xers like myself were nicknamed the “microwave generation”. Who had time for water to boil the old fashioned way? We had short attention spans and were known for needing instant gratification, much to the chagrin of our parents who often struggled to keep up with us.
Well, the microwave generation has now yielded to the “instant-everything generation” and craving for instant gratification has become epidemic. In a world where you can download software in seconds, have the answer to any question immediately at your fingertips, all with little to no effort required on the part of the user, “short attention span” becomes a given.
And so it is how our politicians – and their policies – have evolved. Every politician is thinking about what they can do while in office that they can brag about in the next campaign. This is especially true if they are looking for higher office. Who has time to think about “moon shots”, to plan and invest and strategize for what will be the big thing for the next generation, when you have to focus on the instant gratification requirements of the electorate? Come campaign season, your ads be competing with some of the best ads of the year (football season, after all), so you can’t afford to get lost. Everything must be flash and a soundbite. Dumb it down for the American people. And for goodness sake, have something worth bragging about. I accomplished this, I reformed that, I built this, I destroyed that…
So is it justified? Do Americans need to be treated like 6-year olds in order to get a message?
Better question – can you accomplish anything truly worth bragging about in the matter of a couple or even a few years in office?
Where are our moon shots? Where is our long term vision and investment in plans that, while they may take decades, will put America on top, an indisputable leader in an industry that we have the foresight to see is just around the corner?
We’re good at paying lip service to such ideas: we want to train more scientists, engineers, mathematicians, etc. We want to advance the use of renewable energy. We want a world-class manufacturing/transportation/fill-in-the-blank system. The federal government may throw a few dollars at something for a while (but just so they can brag about how they supported fill-in-the-blank in the next campaign).
So are Americans capable of that kind of vision? I think so. We certainly know that we cannot afford to fall behind China in vision and investment for the future if we want to remain a leader on the world stage. Unfortunately, we seem to be coming up short on the leadership or statesmen with the attention spans to carry it off.
