The US' National Academy of Sciences has released a report titled 'Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited'. According to the report, if the US is to recover from years of severe job losses and financial crisis, it must stay the course of smart, sustained investments in scientific research and globally competitive education. The two are seen as the nation's most valuable economic engines, together fueling technological innovation.
The importance of federal investments in scientific research, education on all levels, and technology was stressed in 2005 in the first iteration of the report, entitled - 'Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future'.
The 2010 report makes four overarching recommendations and presents evidence to illustrate the need for these solutions. These include: move the US' K-12 education system in science and mathematics to a leading position by global standards; double the real federal investment in basic research in mathematics, the physical sciences and engineering over the next seven years (while, at a minimum, maintaining the recently doubled real spending levels in the biosciences); encourage more US citizens to pursue careers in mathematics, science and engineering; and rebuild the competitive ecosystem by introducing reforms in the nation's tax, patent, immigration and litigation policies.
The report further advises that substantial evidence continues to indicate that over the long term, the great majority of newly created jobs are the indirect or direct result of advancements in science and technology. This makes these and related disciplines highly important. In fact, investment in these disciplines leverages economic growth in very broad terms, according to the report. It explains it isn't simply the scientist, engineer and entrepreneur who benefit from progress in a laboratory or design centre. It is also the factory worker who builds the item, the advertising firm that promotes the product, the truck driver who delivers the product, and the local government that benefits from the tax revenue. Further, these jobs generate, on average, another 2.5 jobs in service industries such as grocery stores, restaurants, banks and barber shops.
According to figures from the American Chemistry Council, over 96 percent of all manufactured goods are directly touched by the business of chemistry. Likewise, chemistry companies in the US directly employ 849,000 people and indirectly contribute 4,678,200 jobs to the US economy.
Since 2005, when the first report was released, key investments to stimulate American competitiveness in the sciences and technological innovation have been funded, but largely as either one-time actions, such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or as authorisation of the America COMPETES Act, which is up for renewal in 2010.
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