That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can
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The other four parts of our formula are in no less need of upgrading if America is to continue to thrive. While infrastructure has underpinned economic activity since the time of the Roman Empire and its impressive roads and aqueducts, research and development has become vital only in modern times, and its value is growing. Economic growth in the United States will increasingly come from innovation, and innovation is more and more the product of both incremental advances and decisive breakthroughs in science and technology, which funding for research and development supports.
America also needs to adjust its policies on immigration to the needs of the world we are living in. Just as important as resolving the status of the estimated twelve million people who have entered the country illegally is making it easier for talented foreigners to come to, and remain in, the United States. Foreign-born engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs have made huge contributions to the American economy over the last quarter century and can make even larger contributions in the decades to come—if we let them. Finally, the regulations that govern American business need modernization. The trick in imposing them is to strike the appropriate balance between, on the one hand, rules that are too numerous and constricting, which discourage risk-taking, and, on the other, regulations insufficiently strict to prevent damaging “externalities” and excesses.
If we want to preserve the American dream for future generations, we must understand that the guidance we need cannot be found by simply rereading the Constitution, or proclaiming our exceptionalism at higher and higher decibel levels. The secret of our success has always been combining an understanding of the world in which we were living with the updating of the American formula in order to adapt to the circumstances of the time, even when this required overcoming political differences and doing big, hard things together.
Colonel Mark Mykleby spent twenty-four years in the Marine Corps as an aviator and a special strategic assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In his last year at the Pentagon, Mykleby co-authored with Captain Wayne Porter, of the U.S. Navy, “A National Strategic Narrative,” a paper about how to fix America, with an emphasis on sustainable values, which they published under the pseudonym “Mr. Y,” a historical tip of the hat to the alias of “X” used by George Kennan in his Foreign Affairs article. Just before retiring in 2011, Mykleby, a friend of Tom’s, shared this thought with us: “At no time in our history have our national challenges been as complex and long-term as those we face today. But the most salient trait of our time is not the threats posed by terrorists, an anemic economy, or climate change. It’s our inability to respond coherently and effectively to obvious problems before they become crises … If we can’t even have an ‘adult’ conversation, how will we fulfill the promise of and our obligation to the Preamble of our Constitution—to ‘secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity’?”
How indeed?
Maybe the best way for us to answer that vital question is by ending this book where we began: We don’t need to imitate China. And China’s fate, whatever it is, will not determine ours. What we need is not novel or foreign. What we need instead is to understand our own history. We need to adapt the formula, the priorities, and the practices that are embedded in that history and in our culture. We need to reconnect with the values and ideals that made the American dream so compelling for so many generations of Americans, as well as for so many millions of people across the globe.
That is all part of our past. That used to be us. And because that used to be us, it can be again. That is why, today, the history books we need to read are our own and the country we need to rediscover is America.
ALSO BY THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989)
The Lexus and the Olive Tree (1999)
Longitudes and Attitudes (2002)
The World Is Flat (2005)
Hot, Flat, and Crowded (2008)
ALSO BY MICHAEL MANDELBAUM
The Nuclear Question (1979)
The Nuclear Revolution (1981)
The Nuclear Future (1983)
Reagan and Gorbachev (co-author, 1987)
The Fate of Nations (1988)
The Global Rivals (co-author, 1988)
The Dawn of Peace in Europe (1996)
The Ideas That Conquered the World (2002)
The Meaning of Sports (2004)
The Case for Goliath (2006)
Democracy’s Good Name (2007)
The Frugal Superpower (2010)
Acknowledgments
We have benefited enormously from the many people who took time to share their thoughts with us about America’s future. Byron Auguste, Michael Barber, Curtis Carlson, Susan Engel, Hal Harvey, Craig Mundie, Joe Romm, and last but certainly not least, Dov Seidman, all deserve our special thanks for not only contributing their ideas but also reading portions of the manuscript for us.
In addition, we want to thank, for sharing their time and insights, Peter Ackerman, Léo Apotheker, Don Baer, Evan Bayh, Robert Bennett, Mike Biddle, Joel Cawley, Alan Cohen, Martin Dempsey, Larry Diamond, John Doerr, Arne Duncan, Russ Feingold, Joel Finkelstein, Jeff Garten, Bill Gates, Lindsey Graham, Jennifer Granholm, Jeffrey Immelt, Bob Inglis, Michael Johnston, PV Kannan, Andy Karsner, David Kennedy, Wendy Kopp, Alan Kotz, Ellen Kullman, Ray Lane, Jeffrey Lesk, Michael Maniates, Jack Markell, Stan McChrystal, Ernie Moniz, Mike Murphy, Paul Otellini, Sam Palmisano, Raghuram Rajan, Kasim Reed, Ken Rogoff, Diane Rosenberg, David Rothkopf, Michael Sandel, Dan Simpkins, Alan Simpson, Brad Smith, K. R. Sridhar, Robert Stevenson, Joe Stiglitz, David Stockman, Subra Suresh, Jerry Tarde, Marc Tucker, Chuck Vest, James R. Vivian, Tony Wagner, David Walker, and Randi Weingarten.
Tom also wants to thank his bosses, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the chairman of the Board of the New York Times Company, and Andy Rosenthal, the editorial page editor, for making possible the leave he needed to work on this book. That leave coincided with the “Arab Spring,” and, thanks to Arthur and Andy, Tom was able to move back and forth from book-writing to column-writing as events dictated.
Our literary agent, Esther Newberg, as always, contributed her ideas as well as her business prowess and we benefited from both.
Our assistants, Gwenn Gorman of The New York Times and Kelley J. Kornell of The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, were invaluable in keeping the trains running on time as we each maintained our day jobs while writing this book.
This is Tom’s sixth book with Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Michael’s first, and it would not have been possible without the vision of FSG’s best-in-the-business president and publisher, Jonathan Galassi, and his team: Jeff Seroy, Sarita Varma, Debra Helfand, Susan Goldfarb, Jonathan Lippincott, and Jill Priluck.
A special mention, though, goes to this book’s FSG editor, Paul Elie. His devotion to our project and contribution to every page is deeply appreciated by us both. He has been a real partner. For any would-be author at FSG, just three words of advice: “Ask for Paul.”
Finally, as we note in the dedication, this book benefited enormously from two other people closer to home: Tom’s wife, Ann Friedman, who, besides teaching school, edited the manuscript, and Michael’s wife, Anne Mandelbaum, who not only gave us her wise counsel and support, but also asked during one of our phone conversations the most important question of all: “Why don’t you two write a book about all this?”
Index
The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages of your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
A
ABC News
Abramoff, Jack
Abrams, Samuel J.
Achieve, Inc.
ACT
Adams, Henry
Adams, John
Advanced Research Projects Agency
Afghanistan; Soviet invasion of; U.S. war in
African Americans; education of; in World War II
Age of Fracture (Rodgers)
Ahansal, Mustapha
Ahmetovic, Belma
Air Force, U.S.
Alabama, University of; Creative Campus
Alibaba
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)
Alito, Samuel
Allegheny College
Allen, Woody
All in the Family (television show)
Alonzo, Amanda
Alpoge, Levent
al-Qaeda
Aman, Peter
Amanpour, Christiane
Amazon; Web Services (AWS)
America COMPETES Act (2007)
American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
American Federation of Teachers
American Interest, The
Americans and the California Dream (Starr)
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
American Solutions
American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T)
Amtrak Acela
Anand, Namrata
Andersen, Kurt
Anderson, Chris
Android
Angelides, Phil
anti-Federalists
AOL
Apollo space program
Apotheker, Léo
Apple; iPad; iPhone; iPod; Macintosh computers
Applied Materials
apps
Arab oil embargo
Arab world, uprisings in
Argonne National Laboratory
Arkansas
Armey, Dick
Army, U.S.; Training and Doctrine Command
Asato, Cathy
Asia Society, Center on U.S.-China Relations
Associated Press
Association for Computing Machinery
Atlanta
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Auburn University
Auguste, Byron
Australia
Austria
automation
automobile industry, see cars; Ford Motor Company; General Motors
Autor, David
B
Baathists
Bachmann, Michele
Baer, Don
Baghdad
Bahrain
Bain & Company
Baltimore Orioles baseball team
Bangalore (India)
Bangkok
Bank of America
bankruptcy; of municipal governments
Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (2005)
Barber, Michael
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (Chua)
Bayh, Evan
Bay of Pigs invasion
BBC
Bear Stearns
Beck, Glenn
Becker, Dan
Bell, Alexander Graham
Bennett, Robert
Benton, Thomas
Berkshire Hathaway
Berlin
Berlin Wall; fall of
Beta Bytes
Bethesda Naval Hospital
Bhagwati, Jagdish
Biddle, Mike
Bihar (India)
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
bin Laden, Osama
biofuels
Biofuels Digest
BlackBerry
blacks, see African Americans
Blackstone Discovery
Blankfein, Lloyd
Blinder, Alan
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Bloomberg News
Bloom Energy
Boehlert, Sherwood
Boeing Company
Bonaparte, Napoleon
Bosnia; immigrants from
Boston
Boston Red Sox baseball team
Bowles, Erskine
Boxer, Barbara
Boyd, John
Boys and Girls High School (Brooklyn, New York)
Bradsher, Keith
Brazil
Bretton Woods Agreement
Bridges, Beau
Bridges, Jeff
Britain
Brookings Institution
Brooks, Preston
Brownstein, Ronald
Bryan, William Jennings
budget deficits; lobbyists and; partisan polarization and; reduction of; state; tax cuts and; wars and
Budget Reconciliation Act (1993)
Buffalo (New York)
Buffett, Warren
Bull Moose party
Bull Run, battle of
Bumpers, Dale
Burger King
Burkhardt, Dan
Bush, George H. W.
Bush, George W.
Bush, Prescott
Business Roundtable
C
Caldwell, Christopher
Calev, Yuval Yaacov
California; budget crisis in; electoral politics in; elementary and high school education in; energy policy in; high-tech companies in
California, University of, Berkeley
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
California State University system
Canada
Canseco, José
Capodilupo, John Vincenzo
Carlson, Curtis
Carlson’s Law
Carnegie Mellon University
cars; electric; fuel economy standards for
Carter, Jimmy
Carver, George Washington
Case for Goliath, The (Mandelbaum)
Cato Institute
Cawley, Joel
CBS; News
cell phones; banking via; dissemination of information via; interoperability of; investing via; used, recycling of
Center on Education and the Workforce
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Chamber of Commerce, U.S.
Cheney, Dick
Chernow, Ron
Chiampo, Matteo
Chicago, University of; Booth School of Business
Chicago Cubs baseball team
Chicago Tribune
Children’s Health Insurance Program
Chile
China; agricultural reforms in; applicants to U.S. colleges and universities from; climate change policy in; education in; immigrants in U.S. from; information technology in; Maoist; outsourcing to; productivity in U.S. versus; recycling in; renewable energy in; research and development in; suppression of dissent in; theft of intellectual property in; U.S. debt held by; water shortages in; work ethic in; World Economic Forum in
China Syndrome, The (movie)
Chosin, USS (guided-missile cruiser)
Christians
Chronicle of Higher Education, The
Chua, Amy
Churchill, Winston
Cisco Systems
Citigroup
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2009)
Civic Federation
civil rights
Civil Rights Act (1964)
Civil Service Commission
Civil War
Clabo, Howard
Clark, General Wesley
Clean Air Act (1970)
Clean Air Act (1990)
climate change; denial of; energy policy and mitigation of
ClimateProgress.org
ClimateWorks Foundation
Clinton, Bill
Clinton, Hillary
Clooney, George
cloud computing
CNN
Coast Guard, U.S.
Code of Federal Regulations
Cohen, Alan
Cold War; end of; national unity during; structural advantages during; upgrading formula for success during
collaboration; in education
College Board
Colorado
Columbia University
Comeback America (Walker)
Comerford, Nicholas
communism; collapse of;
refugees from; struggle against, see Cold War
Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP)
Congress, U.S.; campaign financing for candidates for; climate and energy legislation in; economic and fiscal policy and; education legislation in; financial industry and; immigration legislation in; lobbying; partisan polarization in; stimulus package approved by; see also House of Representatives, U.S.; Senate, U.S.
Connecticut
connectivity; wireless
Conniff, Richard
Constitution, U.S.,; Preamble; First Amendment; Fifth Amendment
consumer electronics
Cooper, Anderson
Council of Chief State School Officers
Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI)
Council on Foreign Relations
Craigslist
Crazy Heart (movie)
creativity; education and
credit-default swaps
Credit Suisse First Boston
critical thinking
Cronkite, Walter
Cruise, Tom
Cuba; immigrants from
Culture War? (Fiorina)
Cummings, Elijah
Cuttino, Phyllis
CVS pharmacies
Czechoslovakia
D
Darwin, Charles
Das, Paul Masih
Dawn (newspaper)
Dean, Howard
DeBenedictis, Erika Alden
Declaration of Independence
Deere, John
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
deficits: education; trade; see also budget deficits
Degrees of Separation (Brooking Institution)
Delaware
DeLay, Tom
Dell, Michael
Delta Airlines
Democracy (Adams)
Democracy in America (Tocqueville)
Democratic Party; campaign contributions to; economic and fiscal policies of; energy and climate policies of; entitlement programs and; Leadership Council; news media and; origins of; polarization of Republican Party and