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Our friends at the Council on Competitiveness have just released their Competitiveness Index: Where America Stands—116 pages chock full of highly relevant information and analysis about what the Council calls “strategic differentiators” in education, entrepreneurship, research and development and other critical indices. It should be required reading for American policymakers. In fact, especially in light of the many challenges confronting the country, they should be made to commit it to memory. You too should read it. It is a critical reminder of the things that we should be emphasizing in the United States as we scan the more distant horizons. It also reminds us about popular misconceptions that can lead us far astray.

“The rapid entry of emerging markets into the global economy, the restructuring of global corporations to leverage those new opportunities, and the growing value of innovation, services and intangibles have transformed the competitiveness environment for the U.S. economy, American companies and American workers” (Index, p. 13). So begins the step-by-step look at how the United States fares relative to the rest of the world in the foundations of competitiveness and the sources of future prosperity.

No matter who you are, no matter what you do, no matter how important you are, you have a common predicament with the rest of humanity. Like it or not, you are stuck on a round chunk of rock nearly 8,000 miles wide spinning at a rate of 1,040 miles each hour, revolving around the sun at more than 66,000 miles per hour. The solar system around our planet is nestled in an outer arm of the Milky Way galaxy, spinning at the rate of about 560,000 miles per hour. On top of all that, the galaxy itself is moving through space at more than 660,000 miles per hour. Think about it. If you feel at all out of balance, you have one very persuasive excuse.

However, while we may not be able to alter the course of the planet, we can transform the course of our own futures here. It is inexcusable, therefore, that we are just as oblivious to the forces shaping our environment here at home. You’d think after a few thousand years on this planet, we’d have a better lock on where things are going. That we would have a game plan for addressing all, or at least some, of the big trends—political, social, economic, environmental, etc.--playing themselves out on the surface of this massive rock on which we find ourselves. But we don’t. Not even close. That’s the bad news.

The Global Strategy Institute